Unfortunately, 911 does goet prank calls and they do have to make hard decisions, but in this case it is unlikely that a 5 year old would be making a prank call and a police car should have been sent out. The odds are she got the maximum for a misdemeanor. Let’s keep in mind that a lot of people call 911 when it is not an emergency and those calls need to be fielded as well as the calls that really are emergencies. I feel sorry for everyone involved. Unless you have worked on the phone you don’t know how difficult it is.
Once, when I was working as an “operator” I got a call from an 11 year old, it was his birthday and his grandmother had fallen and wouldn’t wake up. My supervisor managed to call the police in the town and I kept him on the phone until she had the police and told them the situation. They got the address by doing a reverse check. I had to then hangup because the police were going to call the child. What happened I don’t know. But sometimes you do have to make snap decisions and just pray that you made the right one.
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