Question for Police Officers - TexasBowhunter.com Community Discussion Forums

jleverett329 · 02-22-2021, 10:12 PM

I have had law enforcement show up at my house twice in the past two weeks responding to 911 hang ups. Neither time did anyone in my house dial 911 or accidentally alert 911 on the iPhone. The officer confirmed that it
Was none of our numbers that called. He said that it could have been someone up to 2000 meters away and my address is what pinged. Can anyone explain what is going on here because my wife is a tad freaked out by it. We live in a very rural area with very few people on our street but close to some developing neighborhoods. Thank you

Hogmauler · 02-22-2021, 10:20 PM

Can’t explain that but my neighbor got “swatted” the other morning at 6:00 am. I walked out front and had cops swarming his home with AR,s asking him over the p a to “come out slowly with your hands up”. After several attempts his next door neighbor came out then Greg the neighbor that was swatted came out. It was all cleared up but a dangerous prank and waste of manpower.
So “”swatting” is when someone calls in and reports an emergency at your home. Seems like they could trace the call and prosecute

hully1029 · 02-22-2021, 10:22 PM

When someone calls 911, it automatically pings. If it cannot ping an exact area, it will ping off the nearest cell tower to the exact location and give a radius of within ** meters. If you're the only house within that radius, then yes, police can and should show up.

On the other hand, if you have a landline, inclement weather can trigger a 911 call, usually with static on the 911 receiver end. Statistics can show officers respond to 911 hang-ups or 911 static lines on residential and commercial properties exponentially during the spring storms. Squall lines of storms are hell on 911 lines.

hully1029 · 02-22-2021, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hogmauler

Can’t explain that but my neighbor got “swatted” the other morning at 6:00 am. I walked out front and had cops swarming his home with AR,s asking him over the p a to “come out slowly with your hands up”. After several attempts his next door neighbor came out then Greg the neighbor that was swatted came out. It was all cleared up but a dangerous prank and waste of manpower.
So “”swatting” is when someone calls in and reports an emergency at your home. Seems like they could trace the call and prosecute

This is a popular and extremely dangerous prank. It originated through the gaming/streaming community, where two players are live streaming and one is getting beaten, they will call in an emergency (medical, fugitive, assault, robbery, etc) on the person winning, and they can watch the person getting "swatted." There are reports of people being killed by police due to this.

Blane · 02-22-2021, 10:32 PM

I've had deputies show up at my residence because someone hit their On-star button as they passed my driveway.

jleverett329 · 02-22-2021, 10:34 PM

I wonder if there is anyway to call the county dispatch and give them my cell and have them call me should they get another call from what they think is my address.

hully1029 · 02-22-2021, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jleverett329

I wonder if there is anyway to call the county dispatch and give them my cell and have them call me should they get another call from what they think is my address.

Could work, depending on what their policies are. Couldn't hurt to try..

Walker · 02-22-2021, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jleverett329

I wonder if there is anyway to call the county dispatch and give them my cell and have them call me should they get another call from what they think is my address.

Won't work. They will come anyway to be person to person. Policy of every first responder organizatio I know of.

deerslay3r · 02-22-2021, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walker

Won't work. They will come anyway to be person to person. Policy of every first responder organizatio I know of.

That is not the norm per say anymore. There is discretion with larger agencies that have a larger call volume.

TxKronik · 02-22-2021, 11:38 PM

In the county I worked in inclement weather would cause 911 open lines and I would be dispatched out. We had a few repeat areas this would happen.

DFWPI · 02-22-2021, 11:44 PM

Call the 911 services in your county and have them check into it.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

mmlreiner · 02-23-2021, 12:26 AM

It’s not abnormal. I’ve been to the same guys house like 50 times because his phone line is messed up. It randomly calls dispatch and they don’t even have that number anymore but it doesn’t mean we don’t go. Every single time I have to go on the off chance they called “for real”. The poor dude has done everything he knows how to. Nothing has worked. Most of the time we just laugh about it. But sometimes I’m waking him up in the middle of the night. I feel bad but there’s nothing I can do either.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Stan R · 02-23-2021, 05:39 AM

We go to all 911 hang ups...even if they call back and say all is okay.

jleverett329 · 02-23-2021, 08:31 AM

I’m really glad they show up but it’s just weird that I keep getting these pings at my house instead of the neighbors. I am the first house in the street though so maybe that has some hung to do with it also

basskicker24 · 02-23-2021, 08:59 AM

I used to work in a small town and I would get sent to 911 hang ups often for residences that didn’t even have a land line. Seemed to happen mostly during bad weather. Not sure what caused it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Drycreek3189 · 02-23-2021, 09:14 AM

So what y’all are saying is......911 sucks just like everything else government comes up with.

hpdrifter · 02-23-2021, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TxKronik

In the county I worked in inclement weather would cause 911 open lines and I would be dispatched out. We had a few repeat areas this would happen.

man, if that's the case, I'd have em showing up every couple of hours.

zr2chevy22 · 02-23-2021, 11:48 AM

Our dispatch had BIG issues with Ghost calls last week from the weather. We were getting calls and repeat calls from phone numbers that would ping out in the middle of nowhere or at address not associated with the number. Mainly it was static on the lines but you have to do your dudiligence to attempt to locate it incase it is a true emergency.

rtp · 02-23-2021, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hully1029

When someone calls 911, it automatically pings. If it cannot ping an exact area, it will ping off the nearest cell tower to the exact location and give a radius of within ** meters. If you're the only house within that radius, then yes, police can and should show up.

On the other hand, if you have a landline, inclement weather can trigger a 911 call, usually with static on the 911 receiver end. Statistics can show officers respond to 911 hang-ups or 911 static lines on residential and commercial properties exponentially during the spring storms. Squall lines of storms are hell on 911 lines.

Regarding the static I had this happen before. We had a line go bad on a Friday night. It couldn’t be addressed until the following week according to Windstream. Police showed up 3 times that weekend responding to a 911 call. The third time the office said he was putting in their notes what was going on. No more knocks on the door after that.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

pilar · 02-23-2021, 01:15 PM

I had the county cops show up to do a welfare check on my mother in law,
They insisted that they had to verify her welfare, she was asleep and in her night clothes and refused to talk with him, she thought it was a prank, finally got her to change clothes and answer the door , it was weird as it was the middle of the night and having to hassle with the popo’s

Walker · 02-23-2021, 01:21 PM

Look, it's easy enough for any kind of perp to take the phone away from a victim and tell the dispatcher "no, everything in ok" no need to respond. Is that what you would want if the victim was a family member.

pilar · 02-23-2021, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walker

Look, it's easy enough for any kind of perp to take the phone away from a victim and tell the dispatcher "no, everything in ok" no need to respond. Is that what you would want if the victim was a family member.

I agree, but being a victim of a prank call in the middle of the night isn’t easy to understand
What is going on, just glad the cops had their emergency lights on
And no one answered the door with a firearm

justletmein · 02-23-2021, 02:02 PM

Don't you choose your address for e911 with VOIP systems?

Rush2Judge · 02-23-2021, 02:32 PM

I know it sounds odd but, the most likely cause for the failure is Google. Google has mapped WiFi SSIDs around the world. When someone makes an emergency call using cellular, the SSIDs of nearby WiFi networks are sent to Google to get a GPS lat/long. If the cellphone can get a GPS fix, then this step is skipped. Next the GPS coordinates are sent to Google again (as well as other mapping services) to translate the lat/long into a street address. This is where your failure is most likely coming. That new neighborhood near you has not been accurately mapped yet. Your address is the oldest one on record so guess who's address pops up?

jleverett329 · 02-23-2021, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rush2Judge

I know it sounds odd but, the most likely cause for the failure is Google. Google has mapped WiFi SSIDs around the world. When someone makes an emergency call using cellular, the SSIDs of nearby WiFi networks are sent to Google to get a GPS lat/long. If the cellphone can get a GPS fix, then this step is skipped. Next the GPS coordinates are sent to Google again (as well as other mapping services) to translate the lat/long into a street address. This is where your failure is most likely coming. That new neighborhood near you has not been accurately mapped yet. Your address is the oldest one on record so guess who's address pops up?

Considering that I am one of the biggest anti-tech people I know, this just gives me another reason to hate it. But that sounds very logical.

justletmein · 02-23-2021, 02:45 PM

Yep, we had a company move into our office building a few years ago and due to their WiFi SSID being broadcast there my location sharing would show me across town for a few weeks until Google or whomever got enough data to update that location. I guess my phone couldn't see the GPS satellites from inside the building so it was just trying to guess location based off the WiFi SSID's my phone could see.

02-22-2021, 10:12 PM	#1
jleverett329 Four Point Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Conroe	Question for Police Officers I have had law enforcement show up at my house twice in the past two weeks responding to 911 hang ups. Neither time did anyone in my house dial 911 or accidentally alert 911 on the iPhone. The officer confirmed that it Was none of our numbers that called. He said that it could have been someone up to 2000 meters away and my address is what pinged. Can anyone explain what is going on here because my wife is a tad freaked out by it. We live in a very rural area with very few people on our street but close to some developing neighborhoods. Thank you

02-22-2021, 11:38 PM	#10
TxKronik Ten Point Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Northern Bexar county/Bulverde area Hunt In: Webb and Comal County	Question for Police Officers In the county I worked in inclement weather would cause 911 open lines and I would be dispatched out. We had a few repeat areas this would happen. Last edited by TxKronik; 02-22-2021 at 11:43 PM.

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02-22-2021, 10:20 PM	#2
Hogmauler Ten Point Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Katy Hunt In: Kerrville	Can’t explain that but my neighbor got “swatted” the other morning at 6:00 am. I walked out front and had cops swarming his home with AR,s asking him over the p a to “come out slowly with your hands up”. After several attempts his next door neighbor came out then Greg the neighbor that was swatted came out. It was all cleared up but a dangerous prank and waste of manpower. So “”swatting” is when someone calls in and reports an emergency at your home. Seems like they could trace the call and prosecute

02-22-2021, 10:22 PM	#3
hully1029 Pope & Young Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: N Texas Hunt In: Public	When someone calls 911, it automatically pings. If it cannot ping an exact area, it will ping off the nearest cell tower to the exact location and give a radius of within ** meters. If you're the only house within that radius, then yes, police can and should show up. On the other hand, if you have a landline, inclement weather can trigger a 911 call, usually with static on the 911 receiver end. Statistics can show officers respond to 911 hang-ups or 911 static lines on residential and commercial properties exponentially during the spring storms. Squall lines of storms are hell on 911 lines.

02-22-2021, 10:32 PM	#5
Blane Eight Point Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Lexington Texas Hunt In: Lexington	I've had deputies show up at my residence because someone hit their On-star button as they passed my driveway.

02-22-2021, 10:34 PM	#6
jleverett329 Four Point Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Conroe	I wonder if there is anyway to call the county dispatch and give them my cell and have them call me should they get another call from what they think is my address.

02-22-2021, 11:44 PM	#11
DFWPI Pope & Young Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Arlington Hunt In: Jack/Young County	Call the 911 services in your county and have them check into it. Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

02-23-2021, 12:26 AM	#12
mmlreiner Ten Point Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Magnolia, TX Hunt In: Kerr County, Tx	It’s not abnormal. I’ve been to the same guys house like 50 times because his phone line is messed up. It randomly calls dispatch and they don’t even have that number anymore but it doesn’t mean we don’t go. Every single time I have to go on the off chance they called “for real”. The poor dude has done everything he knows how to. Nothing has worked. Most of the time we just laugh about it. But sometimes I’m waking him up in the middle of the night. I feel bad but there’s nothing I can do either. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

02-23-2021, 05:39 AM	#13
Stan R Pope & Young Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Madisonville Hunt In: Madison and Colorado County	We go to all 911 hang ups...even if they call back and say all is okay.

02-23-2021, 08:31 AM	#14
jleverett329 Four Point Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Conroe	I’m really glad they show up but it’s just weird that I keep getting these pings at my house instead of the neighbors. I am the first house in the street though so maybe that has some hung to do with it also

02-23-2021, 08:59 AM	#15
basskicker24 Ten Point Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: San Antonio Hunt In: Guadalupe county/ Ozona	I used to work in a small town and I would get sent to 911 hang ups often for residences that didn’t even have a land line. Seemed to happen mostly during bad weather. Not sure what caused it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

02-23-2021, 09:14 AM	#16
Drycreek3189 Pope & Young Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Troup Hunt In: Cherokee, Rusk, Trinity Counties	So what y’all are saying is......911 sucks just like everything else government comes up with.

02-23-2021, 11:48 AM	#18
zr2chevy22 Ten Point Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Santa Fe, TX Hunt In: Diboll, TX	Our dispatch had BIG issues with Ghost calls last week from the weather. We were getting calls and repeat calls from phone numbers that would ping out in the middle of nowhere or at address not associated with the number. Mainly it was static on the lines but you have to do your dudiligence to attempt to locate it incase it is a true emergency.

02-23-2021, 01:15 PM	#20
pilar Pope & Young Join Date: Jan 2017 Location: Sisterdale Hunt In: Sisterdale and el dorado , Jeff Davis, refugio/sinton , San perlita	I had the county cops show up to do a welfare check on my mother in law, They insisted that they had to verify her welfare, she was asleep and in her night clothes and refused to talk with him, she thought it was a prank, finally got her to change clothes and answer the door , it was weird as it was the middle of the night and having to hassle with the popo’s

02-23-2021, 01:21 PM	#21
Walker Ten Point Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: San Antonio	Look, it's easy enough for any kind of perp to take the phone away from a victim and tell the dispatcher "no, everything in ok" no need to respond. Is that what you would want if the victim was a family member.

02-23-2021, 02:02 PM	#23
justletmein Pope & Young Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: San Antonio \ Cheyenne Hunt In: Public lands	Don't you choose your address for e911 with VOIP systems?

02-23-2021, 02:32 PM	#24
Rush2Judge Ten Point Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: Plano Hunt In: Wood County	I know it sounds odd but, the most likely cause for the failure is Google. Google has mapped WiFi SSIDs around the world. When someone makes an emergency call using cellular, the SSIDs of nearby WiFi networks are sent to Google to get a GPS lat/long. If the cellphone can get a GPS fix, then this step is skipped. Next the GPS coordinates are sent to Google again (as well as other mapping services) to translate the lat/long into a street address. This is where your failure is most likely coming. That new neighborhood near you has not been accurately mapped yet. Your address is the oldest one on record so guess who's address pops up?

02-23-2021, 02:45 PM	#26
justletmein Pope & Young Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: San Antonio \ Cheyenne Hunt In: Public lands	Yep, we had a company move into our office building a few years ago and due to their WiFi SSID being broadcast there my location sharing would show me across town for a few weeks until Google or whomever got enough data to update that location. I guess my phone couldn't see the GPS satellites from inside the building so it was just trying to guess location based off the WiFi SSID's my phone could see.