Whitby resident calls 911 to complain about police cars

Durham County police on Wednesday released audio of a 911 call from a Whitby resident complaining about sirens to highlight the misuse of the emergency number.

In the audio, the resident, whose voice has been edited for privacy reasons, tells the 911 operator that the sirens go off “every hour,” before asking if everything is OK.

The operator replies that it is the weekend and that emergency calls are therefore coming in more often.

“I can’t tell you what’s going on, but I mean, there’s no risk in the area where you are right now,” the 911 operator says. “It’s busy. Durham County is so sprawling.”

The resident then tells the operator that he wants to file a complaint. He says that he grew up in the neighborhood and has never heard sirens ‘like this’.

“It’s ridiculous. Unless there’s a lot of crime, I don’t know what you guys are doing, but it’s a bit of a disruption, to be honest,” the resident said.

The operator tells him that the sirens are not going off for nothing and that the police are probably responding to emergency situations, such as car accidents.

“They don’t just turn them on,” says the 112 operator.

The resident complains of hearing sirens at night and in the morning in his “very safe” neighborhood. He says, “We’re not in Chicago, we’re not in the Bronx.”

“It seems to me that the police could perhaps do a little better to avoid disturbing public order,” said the resident.

The operator reiterated that police should activate their sirens in an emergency, before advising the resident to call the non-emergency number so he could speak to a police sergeant about his complaint.

“I would be happy to do that,” the resident replies before ending the call.

In the social media post accompanying the audio, Durham police said 911 is for life and death emergencies and “not this,” referring to the call

They added that their communicators are answering more than 600 calls a day and reiterated that Durham residents who are not experiencing a life-threatening emergency should call the non-emergency number: 905-579-1520.

Police in the Greater Toronto Area have released audio recordings of 911 calls in which the hotline is being misused to draw attention to the problem.

In 2022, the Durham Police Department released a list of inappropriate, non-emergency 911 calls from the previous year. For example, someone complained about a long line at the drive-thru at a Taco Bell, finding the Wi-Fi password, and a cat that had escaped from the house and was stuck in a tree.