Saratoga News

El Niño rings up problems for local sheriff's deputies

By John Pancharian

Like a bratty little boy making crank calls, it seems El Niño has been setting off Saratoga burglar alarms and making false calls to the 911 Emergency Center.

Sgt. Wayne Waltman of the sheriff's westside substation said that during the recent bout of storms, deputies have responded to several calls that led them to a quiet house with nobody home and no sign of any emergency. These 911 abandon calls, as they are known to emergency workers, seem to be caused by problems in the phone lines that relate to storm activity, Waltman said.

"We have an obligation to respond to all of these calls," Waltman explained, adding that each time this happens it eats up almost two work hours for the sheriff's department. This comes at the same time the storms are at their worst and deputies are needed to respond to accidents, downed trees and other weather-related problems.

But the mysterious 911 abandon calls are not the only problem. Storms also trip burglar alarms at local residences. Diana Pell, duty commander at the 911 Emergency Center, said that often the strong winds associated with winter storms rattle windows and doors that contain the contact points for alarm systems. When this happens, systems can trigger and send false calls.

Some alarms also feature an automatic dialer which calls the 911 center when tripped and plays a recording. Pell suggested that Saratoga is apt to have problems of this sort because of the especially strong winds here. "And you have a lot of alarms in your town," she added.

False calls not only divert deputies from more important duties, but also require attention from 911 operators who already handle more than 4,800 calls a month. "We had a big spike in all areas," said Pell. "A lot more accidents. Usually, unless there is a big storm, our call volume goes down in the winter." Chris, a 911 operator (Emergency Center policy prevents releasing his last name), said that occasionally he even receives false calls from construction sites when rough weather jostles the rudimentary phone service installed in incomplete buildings.

"The wind is certainly the villain in the alarms," Sgt. Waltman agreed, though he added that no one at the phone company was able to explain how the 911 abandon calls not made by alarm systems could have been generated. Lydia Bell, a Pacific Bell spokeswoman, said that in order to have any hope of determining what is happening on a case-by-case basis, the phone company needs the number from which the 911 abandon call originated. But the sheriff's department cannot release those numbers for reasons of privacy.

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