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In spring 2006, J.T. Slack and his friends were walking along High Street and 17th Avenue after a night out. He hit the emergency phone button and a Columbus Division of Police officer traveling north on High Street immediately made a U-turn.
The officer confronted Slack, currently a junior in civil engineering, and told him that pushing the button was not a wise thing to do when no help is needed. Slack apologized as the officer left, Slack said. He said he thought the situation was over, but then Ohio State police showed up.
“He starts going off on me, screaming and carrying on. He said ‘You know we can get you for inciting panic and disturbing the peace?’ ” Slack said.
After a heated conversation between Slack and the officer, the officer told him to move along without penalty, Slack said.
Towering and topped with a flashing blue light, emergency phones are placed on campus and the surrounding area so people in need can have instant access to help. There are more than 180 emergency phones, and although “Emergency” is boldly painted in white on the phones, they can be used for different types of help.
If someone needs directions around campus, has locked their keys in the car or needs a jump-start, they can receive assistance using emergency phones, said Ron Balser, assistant director of university security and communications.
Misuse of the emergency phones is common, Balser said, but he cautioned those who are curious about improperly using them. Unlike the phones on campus, improper use of the off-campus phones can be costly.
“It’s a 9-1-1 emergency line. If you would make a crank call or something, you certainly could be arrested for misuse of a 9-1-1 line, which is different from the ones on campus,” Balser said.
Officer Adam Tabor of University Police has had quite a few experiences with false alarms. He said that about 95 percent of the time he is dispatched to a phone, no one is there.
The calls are not all false alarms though, and Tabor said he recently helped two students who were assaulted by a group of four people. One of the victims ran to a phone and police were able to respond, aid the injured victims and arrest the suspects.
“Even if you look at 95 percent false alarms, that one or two times that it does work is a pretty good experience,” Tabor said.
Response time varies depending on what the dispatcher hears as the phone is activated.
“If it’s an experience where someone is yelling and screaming and we can’t tell what’s happening, we’re going to get here pretty quick,” he said. “If the dispatcher talks and no one answers and can’t hear anything that indicates an emergency, then we’re going to respond as quickly as we can without lights and sirens.”
Police realize that because of the large number of phones, misuse is inevitable. During events with a lot of people, such as football games, officials are stationed near the phones so that officers will not waste their time chasing phantom calls. Because no distinction is made between general help-line calls and emergency calls, individual false alarms could not be tallied.
Balser said he does not think there are plans to add more emergency phones, but they are trying to redesign them to make them more visible. Funding for a redesign has yet to be designated.
Tom Knox can be reached at [email protected].
