SANDPOINT, Idaho — The Bonner County Sheriff's Office (BCSO) has seen a stark increase in unintentional 911 calls recently, but Sheriff Daryl Wheeler said these calls can be prevented by changing the settings on a smartwatch.
According to a Facebook post from BSCO, the sheriff's office has seen a dramatic increase in unintentional 911 calls from people skiing and snowboarding at Schweitzer Mountain. The calls were made due to a "fall detection" feature available on most smartwatches.
The "fall detection" feature is designed to call 911 in the event of a fall. For example, Apple Watches tap you on the wrist, sound an alarm and display an alert if it senses you have fallen.
If an Apple Watch detects that you're moving, it waits for you to respond to the alert and won't automatically call emergency services. If the watch detects you have been immobile for about a minute, it will begin a 30-second countdown while tapping you on the wrist and sounding an alert. When the countdown ends, 911 is automatically called.
According to BCSO, some people don't know about this feature on smartwatches.
On Saturday, Jan. 7, BCSO said 30% of the 911 calls received that day were unintentional calls from people at Schweitzer. Bonner County 911 and BCSO deputies "treat each 911 call as an emergency until we can verify otherwise" and said these unintentional calls "take emergency resources away from true emergencies."
To learn more about fall detection features, BCSO recommends checking the user guide or settings on your smartwatch to ensure you understand how to use it and when it should be utilized.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.