You're Clogging Up the 911 Line with Your Butt Dials

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Emergency calls in San Francisco are on the rise—but not because of an increase in crime. Instead, according to new findings from Google, the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management is getting a surge of calls because of the phenomenon known as butt dialing. In a sample of nearly 200 calls made to 911, 30 percent were accidental.

If that figure sounds staggering, consider that last year, the Federal Communications Commission estimated the number of accidental calls made in New York was 50 percent.

Unsurprisingly, many of these accidental dials come from cell phones. That's a problem, since it takes longer for 911 dispatchers to resolve cell phone calls than landlines calls. When dispatchers hear a silent line, they're required to call the person back to find out if there's a legitimate problem (most accidental calls from landlines are made from pay phones, so dispatchers don't have to call back). The whole thing is a real pain in the ass—in fact, 80 percent of 911 dispatchers told Google that the call-back process was too time consuming, and 39 percent singled it out as their "largest pain point."

The research signals a need for better methods to deal with the millions of random butt dials every year.