By Matt Dinger, Staff Writer, The Oklahoman
Oklahoma City — Nearly 1 million 9-1-1 calls are made every year to the Oklahoma City Emergency Communications Center, and many fall well below what most people would consider an emergency.

Calltaker Brenda Grayson said people will phone because their kids won’t get up and go to school, their boyfriends won’t come inside the house when told, or their husbands change the channel on the television and won’t change it back.

“Every call is different. Nothing surprises me,” she said.

About a third of the callers actually need police officers, firefighters or paramedics to be dispatched, said James Fitzpatrick, director of the center. And only 4 percent of those dispatched calls are “priority one” situations, requiring an immediate response.

Of the remaining calls, many come from children playing with telephones, the mentally ill, or people calling with situations that can’t be classified as an emergency.

One caller phoned from his home to ask if it was illegal to be drunk.

And then there are the food calls.

Dispatcher Miles Lewis quoted one caller: “They didn’t give me my sweet-and-sour sauce.”

Hamburgers can be a problem.

“A lady called because her bun didn’t have seeds on it,” Lewis said. “She was at a Burger King on the south side.”

“People will pull into the drive-through and not move because they’re mad,” said Stephanie Van Nort, another dispatcher. “I had one at a Chinese place. She bought the buffet but complained that the food looked bad. The restaurant had denied the woman a refund, and she was incensed.”

One homeless man called and requested a cheeseburger and a soda because he was cold and hungry. That night, an officer brought him some food out of kindness. But the next night, the same man called back with a larger order that included two cheeseburgers, cigarettes, a cigarette lighter and assorted other items. Those requests went unanswered.

On the other hand, there is a woman who calls when she has cookies for police officers and dispatchers. The only catch is someone will have to come by and get them.

Dispatchers do their best to stay on the line and resolve a situation, but dispatchers can terminate calls, Fitzpatrick said.

“If we’re in the middle of a crisis and they start talking about seeing ghosts, we have the option to hang up on them,” he said.

Despite the nonemergency calls that come into the center, there are enough dispatchers that every 9-1-1 call is still answered within 10 seconds, he said.

And, in his 19 months on the job, Fitzpatrick said nobody has called maliciously, or to intentionally defraud dispatchers. Fitzpatrick, the former deputy chief of the Oklahoma City Police Department, said if that situation ever arises, the caller would be investigated and arrested.

“Every place has some people who are going to call in without an emergency,” Fitzpatrick said. “We just don’t have a problem with people sitting there calling 9-1-1 and not getting their calls answered.”

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