False 911 calls surged this year during the Bonnaroo festival, attended by 80,000 people, straining first responders.
A new Apple technology that automatically contacts emergency personnel when a gadget senses sudden movement was blamed for increased calls. Authorities were able to control the situation despite the spike in false alerts without jeopardizing their ability to respond to real crises.
The Director of Coffee County 911 Communication Center, Scott LeDuc, claims that this year's Bonnaroo event had around five times as many fraudulent 911 calls as typical, WKRN reported.
Fortunately, the increased calls did not interfere with the capacity of first responders to handle real emergencies. LeDuc praised his team's efforts, highlighting their professionalism and commitment to addressing the issue well.
When festival-goers danced to live performances, Apple's "Crash Detection Mode" function was accidentally activated, which led to erroneous 911 calls. In response, LeDuc alerted guests and requested they turn off the function. These notifications worked well, reducing false calls by 40 to 60 percent. Apple provided on-site support, but LeDuc was able to identify and fix the problem remotely.
Extra Effort For Law Enforcers
In tight collaboration with Bonnaroo organizers, Coffee County was able to locate each caller and confirm the false alarms. Coffee County is making aggressive efforts to avoid a repeat, and officials have partnered with Wilson County to prepare responders for a probable rise in emergency calls during the neighboring Nashville Superspeedway's staging of the Ally 400 NASCAR race.
LeDuc stressed the need to thoroughly handle each 911 call to guarantee the security of all concerned. He commended the Manchester Police Department for their extraordinary efforts in identifying the callers during the event since it may be difficult to tell the difference between true emergencies and unintentional pocket dialing.
Apple has been emphasizing the use of its smartphones and wearables as security and health tools more and more, per Gizmodo. Motion sensors are currently used by devices like the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra, and the 2nd generation Apple Watch SE to detect abrupt and robust motions suggestive of an accident.
iPhone 14 Pro comes with Crash Detection, a vital new safety feature that can detect a severe car crash and automatically call for help, even when you can’t.
— Apple (@Apple) September 9, 2022
Though these gadgets provide notifications and let users quickly contact emergency services, false emergency calls still pose a problem since skiers, snowmobiles, and rollercoasters have all been known to cause erroneous calls in the past, according to Apple Insider.
Android Update Causes Spike in Fake Emergency Calls
False emergency calls are a problem that is not exclusive to Apple products. A recent upgrade that included an SOS emergency function also caused inadvertent 911 calls for Android users.
UK law enforcement organizations have seen an alarming rise in unintended 999 calls, as previously reported by TechTimes. Concerningly, 9,500 calls went to the emergency number and 3,000 to non-emergency lines. Just around 20% of calls actually needed an emergency response.
Authorities blamed a recent update to Android devices for the rise in erroneous emergency calls. A new SOS emergency function was included with the update, and it works by repeatedly pushing the power button.
Police agencies took to social media to urge people to carefully review their phone settings and turn off the SOS emergency option if unnecessary.
