CHP Endures 5,000 Crank Calls

The CHP’s Vallejo (N. Calif.) comm center has been taking a hit on crank 911 calls–one caller has made nearly 2,000 phony cellular 911 calls to the center, while another man has tallied 5,000 crank calls. Both men are untraceable because they’re using unregistered phones, and police have been unable to identify the men. Back in 2002 the FCC approved carriers blocking 911 calls from non-initialized phones that are generating crank or phony 911 calls (download, pdf). The CHP center originally handled all wireless 911 calls in the nine-county area around San Francisco, but several local agencies are now answering their own wireless calls. [Read the reader comments that a local newspaper story generated!]