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On Tuesday, an Ohio woman dialed Chagrin Valley Dispatch on 911 to complain about a meal from KFC.
The woman told the operator that she went to a KFC restaurant in Euclid, Ohio, and ordered chicken for $25.99, which should have given her eight pieces.
However, when she received her order, there were only four pieces of chicken. She tried escalating the issue to the manager of that KFC restaurant but the manager claimed that the order had been packed correctly on their end.
911 operator calls the KFC complaint a civil matter
The woman was upset at receiving only half the amount of chicken she had paid for, telling the operator:
"I only got four pieces of chicken. And I want my chicken."
However, the dispatcher informed the woman that her complaint was more of a civil matter that would need to be taken up with management. The dispatcher advised registering the complaint with someone at a level above the manager the woman had previously dealt with.
The dispatcher then told the caller:
"There's not much the police can do about it."
Despite this, the woman vehemently insisted that she needed their assistance and wanted to talk to a police officer, upon which an officer was dispatched to her location.
The officer only reiterated what the dispatcher had already conveyed to the caller, telling the woman that he was unable to help her in the situation with KFC.
Twitter users also chipped in about how calling 911 about a KFC order was wrong:
Ohio Police Chief issues statement warning against misuse of 911 services
In light of this call, Euclid Police Chief Scott Meyer took the opportunity to issue a PSA regarding the misuse of 911's services, reminding people to only call in case of an emergency.
He said:
“While we are here to serve the public, an incorrect drive-thru order is not a police matter.”
A similar reminder was issued by the West Yorkshire Police Contact Management Center in Britain in 2020. The warning was issued in response to a resident calling the UK's emergency number 999 to report that a new freezer they had ordered had been delivered to the wrong address.
The US Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) designates making false or harassing 911 calls a criminal offense in several communities, punishable by a fine or jail time.
Ohio's Revised Code classifies misusing the 911 service to report a situation that is evidently not an emergency as a misdemeanor of the fourth degree on a first offense. Any repetition of the same is decreed a felony by the law.
This is not the first instance of the emergency response system being misused. The Arizona State University Center for Problem-Oriented Policing estimated that:
"Phantom wireless calls account for between 25 and 70 percent of all 911 calls in some U.S. communities."
However, there aren't any national statistics regarding the same, per the National Emergency Number Association.
