Jackson County, which has received nearly 900 hang-up 911 calls, provides instruction on what to do if it happens to you

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office has had nearly 900 calls to 911 this year that were hang ups.

Because law enforcement has to follow up on each call — there have been 893 this year so far — the Sheriff’s Office is asking the public to do two things.

First, if you do accidentally call 911, please stay on the line and verify all information with dispatch. Otherwise, emergency resources need to be sent to the source of the call.

“The obvious consequence is that responses to emergencies can be delayed due to officers’ response to accidental dials,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

Second, they have provided some instructions in how to deactivate emergency SOS features.

“Much of (the 911 hang ups have) been attributed to software updates on Android phones where the SOS feature is automatically turned on with the update,” the Sheriff’s Office stated. “We have found that causes of the misdials are as simple as pocket dial, the phone bouncing around too much in a vehicle or ATV/UTV, a hard drop of the phone, etc.”

Here are steps they provide to deactivate those features:

Apple Watch:

1. Open the Watch app on your iPhone, then tap the My Watch tab.
2. Tap Emergency SOS.
3. Turn off Hold Side Button to Dial

iPhone:

1. Go to Settings > Emergency SOS.
2. Turn “Call with Hold and Release” on or off: Hold and release the side and volume buttons to start a countdown to call emergency services.
3. Turn “Call with 5 presses” on or off: Rapidly press the side button five times to start a countdown to call emergency services.

Android:

1. Open your phone’s Settings app.
2. Tap Safety & emergency Emergency SOS.
3. Turn off Use Emergency SOS.