One-in-five 911 calls in Metro Vancouver last year wasn’t urgent

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The people in charge of handling all emergency calls in Metro Vancouver are again reminding you to make sure any 911 calls are important and urgent.

Jasmine Bradley with E-Comm says approximately 20 per cent of police calls do not require immediate action.
“Anytime a 911 line is taken up for a matter that doesn’t require immediate assistance from first responders, it does occupy that lifeline for somebody who potentially needs it for a life or death situation.”

Bradley adds examples of non-emergency calls include minor car crashes and reporting a break-in three days after it happened. “You wake up in the morning and you realize your car has been broken into. There’s nobody around. Nobody’s safety’s at risk. That still needs to be reported to police, but on the non-emergency line.”

Last year, nearly 390,000 emergency calls were made to 17 police agencies across Metro Vancouver. “We understand that sometimes it can be difficult to know the difference between non-emergencies and emergency calls and if you’re ever in doubt, always call 911. Our call-takers will ask you some questions and refer to the non-emergency line if that’s appropriate.”

Click here for a complete list of numbers for non-emergency lines.

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