The Fight Against Crime: Notes From the Front : Proposed Law Would Punish 911 Abusers

The newest class of lawbreakers in California could very well be 911 abusers. A bill that goes before the state Senate Judiciary Committee this week would make it a misdemeanor to call 911 “with the intent to annoy or harass another person.”

A conviction would carry penalties of six months in jail, a $1,000 fine or both.

The law also aims to hold 911 abusers accountable for their actions, making them reimburse cities and counties for the costs of sending officers out on bogus calls.

It’s beyond our ability to fathom why anyone would tie up critical emergency phone lines to demand a ride to the airport, report a dead cat, spew obscenities at the officer who answers, point accusatory fingers at their neighbors or just plain hang up. But people really do this.

On an average day in the City of Angels, the dispatchers at the Los Angeles Police Department receive between 150 and 200 crank calls. So it is not surprising that the city is among the chief backers of 911 legislation.

The city is taking the problem seriously enough to put its lobbyists to work rallying support in Sacramento.

“The Los Angeles Police Department has a problem of callers making repeated calls to a dispatcher without any emergency to report, but rather out of a desire to annoy or just to chat. Some individuals have been known to make up to 75 or 80 calls per night,” Norm Boyer, the city’s chief legislative representative, wrote in a letter supporting the bill.

“The department has tried to remedy the problem by warning them on the phone not to annoy, by contacting these callers at their homes, and by issuing written warnings, all to no avail,” Boyer wrote. The department has even asked the phone company about removing these callers’ phones, but that cannot be done without a court order.”

The push for legislation to punish 911 abusers grew out of the Central Valley and an incident on Christmas night, 1991, when a man who said he “just wanted to see what happened” dialed 911 while staying at a friend’s house. He tried to hang up, but the line remained open. Deputies, suspecting a domestic disturbance, knocked on the door, but the three men inside, including a college criminal justice major, hid in the bathroom and waited for the officers to leave.

Of course they didn’t. Instead, the deputies summoned backup, fearing a hostage situation. The entire Mariposa County Sheriff’s Department, as well its 911 lines, was tied up for an hour.

When they found the prank violated no law, deputies in Mariposa County decided some changes in the law were in order. The idea to make 911 abuse a crime was embraced by Assemblyman Sal Cannella (D-Modesto). So far, the bill has sailed through all legislative channels with unanimous support.

People who report pseudo-crimes, then run snickering into the night, already face charges of filing false reports, and the new law wouldn’t deal with them. Nor would it be likely to be enforced against people who call to report dead cats.

Instead, the measure would target people like Ludovit Salka, who called 911 a record 582 times in July, 1990, earning the dubious distinction of being the first person in Los Angeles County to fall under a court order NOT to dial 911 to report drug activity.

Salka, it seems, was convinced all his neighbors in the Tujunga Hills were making and selling drugs. He watched them, photographed them and made their lives miserable for 13 years. “He’s probably the worst we’ve ever had,” said Lt. David Musil at the Downtown communications center. But he added that Salka isn’t an isolated case. “It’s not unusual to find people who have called up to 100 times a day.”

Contained in the packet of materials the lawmakers are considering is the case of the extremely persevering--dare we say obsessed?--caller up north in Santa Clara County. He reached out and touched 911 73 times during the wee hours of June 2, 1989.

This clearly qualifies as a violation of Section 6531, Subsection b, if the bill becomes law. It reads: “An intent to annoy or harass is established by proof of repeated calls over a period of time, however short, that are unreasonable under the circumstances.”

It is difficult to get away with 911 abuse. The police dispatchers know where people are calling from because computers automatically trace the calls. Callers are recorded.

So don’t drop the dime if you can’t do the time.