Police asking public to not test out new iPhone emergency feature

Halifax Regional Police are asking you to resist the temptation to try out the new 911 auto-dial feature that’s been included in the latest iOS 11 upgrade.

It allows those in danger to quickly contact emergency services, but spokesperson Cst. Dianne Penfound says their operators have been getting a lot of calls from people testing it out.

“If it’s not an emergency and you’re calling 911, you’re tying up those operators who are awaiting actual emergency calls,” she said.

Penfound says if you ever dial emergency services by mistake, don’t hang up.

“If people do test it, we’re asking them not to, but if they do, we’re asking them to stay on the phone and advise the operator that it was done in error so we’re not looking for people we believe are in distress.”

The feature can be enabled or disabled by going to ‘Emergency SOS’ in your settings.

 

 

 

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