During a five-week period last year, 23 percent of the 911 calls to San Diego police dispatchers were accidental "pocket calls," Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman told the City Council's Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee on Wednesday.
She said that amounted to about 12,000 calls to the emergency line.
"We made an attempt to call back every one of those individuals and not one of them was an emergency," Zimmerman said.
She said a proposed policy change regarding the dreaded "butt dials" would save the dispatching staff 2.8 hours per day.
A Federal Communications Commission report released in October said authorities in New York and Anchorage estimated that roughly 70 percent of their emergency calls came from wireless devices, and half of those were inadvertent.
The report from Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said dispatchers were "inundated" with such calls, creating a "huge waste of resources."
According to San Diego City Council members, a common complaint they receive from citizens is how long they are left on hold during calls to the police department because of the dispatchers' workload. The dispatching staff is short 25 employees, but two prospective workers are in the process of being hired, according to Zimmerman.
Changes to dispatcher schedules that should lead to an improvement are due to be implemented soon, she said.
