It's a prank making rounds on social media involving "Siri," the personal assistant on Apple's iPhone.
Users say “Hey Siri, 108” and Siri will begin a five second countdown before calling local emergency dispatch.
Then number 108 is similar to calling 911 in India, hence the reason Siri is making the call.
Some people aren’t canceling the countdown and an actual call is placed to 911, causing many dispatch centers to deal with hang up calls when it could be time spent on actual emergencies.
“It’ll be something that people want to experiment with,” said James Valentine, Director of the Ionia County Central Dispatch. “We're getting unnecessary 911 calls that could be coming in in the mist of other emergencies that are being handled at the same time.”
For Ionia County Dispatch something as a traffic accident on I-96 can cause phones to ring off the hook, making things chaotic.
“It’s not unusual to get 20 to 25 911 calls to tell us there's an accident and in the midst of that we have other emergencies that come in in other parts of the county,” said Valentine. “The last thing we need right at that point is someone either experimenting with Siri or accidentally dialing 911.”
You could be charged with misuse of 911 by calling and hanging up. Dispatchers just ask to leave the lines open for real emergencies.
“If you have an emergency dial 911,” said Valentine. “It’s universal in the State of Michigan and that's your instant means for help.”
Ionia County Central Dispatch wants to remind you that if you are unable to call 911 in an emergency, you can text 911 in Ionia, Barry, and Eaton counties.
