This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Cries of "wolf" are hitting 911 dispatch centers with disturbing frequency, sometimes hundreds of times a month.
But the pranksters are going unpunished for their false alarms, dialing 911 on deactivated cell phones that prove difficult, if not impossible, to trace.
The calls seem eerily realistic at times: the sound of someone choking, a child reporting his mother having a seizure.
These pranksters are sometimes so convincing that they divert police, fire and medical crews to bogus addresses. That's what a group of troublesome callers in Weber County did when they phoned dispatchers repeatedly in late February.
Weber/Morgan dispatchers reported sending a K-9 unit to handle a caller's concern about a trespasser, then a fire engine and ambulance to another call about a fallen man. Both were fabricated.
In just two months, the Weber/Morgan dispatch center has recorded more than 1,100 calls from deactivated cell phones, most of them pranks, according to operations manager Cindy Fox.
"We are trying to get emergency services to people who really need the help," said dispatch supervisor Cathy Pommier. "If we send fire units, police units and ambulances to calls that aren't real, that takes manpower away from calls that actually need it."
The problem pervades dispatch centers across the state. Salt Lake City dispatchers recorded almost a thousand calls over deactivated cell phones between January and February. Most were phony.
While St. George dispatchers couldn't give an exact count, they estimated several hundred wireless prank calls a month. Senior dispatcher Rachel Sharich said she personally received at least 20 prank calls - some with just children's chatter in the background - during a five-day period last week.
"It is not fun," she said. "It ties up our lines. It's a danger to other people."
Federal law requires cell phone carriers to broadcast 911 calls whether a cell phone is activated or not. The phones need only have power.
While the rule has proved valuable for domestic violence victims - who receive deactivated cell phones through charity to make emergency calls - it has created a headache for dispatchers who report frequent abuse.
Dispatchers tell of children dialing 911 on deactivated cell phones that their parents have handed down as toys. They speak of teens bombarding dispatch centers with phony calls, sometimes requesting police assistance.
Dispatchers have little recourse. They either get a non-working telephone number or no number at all, and no location.
Cell phone carriers have begun implementing technologies that would make wireless calls easier to locate. But still, dispatchers say the technology would provide them only an area, not a specific location, as to where the wireless call originated.
Patrick Halley, government affairs director for the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), said the Federal Communications Commission knew of possible abuses when they required cell phone carriers to relay emergency calls. Safety issues - for battered women, the elderly and people who can't afford cell phone service - won the debate.
Although prank calls have become problematic, Halley defends the decision.
"Is it worth having 1,000 prank calls to save two lives?" he asked. "In my opinion, yes."
FCC officials reported no efforts afoot to change the rules regulating wireless calls, citing safety as justification for the policy. However, the commission is working with law enforcement agencies in troublesome areas to track down 911 abusers, a spokesman said.
"We think the most important policy objective is to get the call through," said James Hobson, an attorney for NENA. "Surely it is a good idea to help a victim who is really in trouble. But it is not a good idea when [an unsubscribed cell phone] gets into the hands of a prankster."