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“Palm Beach man charged with misusing 911

Wednesday, July 2, 2003

WEST PALM BEACH (AP) - A 22-year-old man was charged with misusing the 911 system after dialing the emergency number more than 900 times since May, taxing dispatchers and police.

Howard V. Hill Jr. was arrested Monday and released from the Palm Beach County Jail on his own recognizance. Unlawful use of the 911 system is a first-degree misdemeanor.

During many of the calls, Hill claimed an officer had been shot, indicated he wanted to shoot an officer with a bow and arrow or made animal sounds into the phone, according to his arrest report.

Police said 200 calls were made to 911 from Hill's cellular phone on June 23.

"He's been very persistent," said West Palm Beach police spokeswoman Dena Kimberlin, adding that each call had to be investigated.

"Whenever someone calls 911, the dispatchers are trained to respond to emergencies and 911 is strictly for that," she said. "When someone abuses that line they could conceivably kill someone by taking the time away that dispatchers could use to give instructions for CPR or give information to road patrol units."

When questioned about the excessive phone calls, Hill told police that his friend "Jimmy" was the one making the calls and that he would make sure the calls would stop, according to police reports.

But the calls didn't stop, and Hill later identified "Jimmy" as his pet bird.

"He's the only one that I have heard of who has abused the system to this extent," Kimberlin said.”

“Didn't someone do this last year?”

“When I used to work for a local police department, the training officer I had to ride with my first month after academy arrested a guy for similar stuff. The crazy old guy would call saying people were beating on his door trying to get in. So they told the dispatcher to tell them when he was on the line, and they sat outside his house waiting. The next time he called they arrested him for Falsely Reporting an Incident, a misdemeanor.”