Citizen Portal
Sign In

Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows

Get Lifetime Access

Milton council adopts ordinance to penalize abusive 911 misuse, with exemptions for good-faith calls

Milton City Council · March 17, 2026

Loading...

AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Council unanimously approved ordinance 21-36-26 to give police and dispatch tools to warn and, if necessary, pursue civil or misdemeanor penalties against repeat abusive 911 callers while exempting legitimate emergency calls and accidental dials.

The Milton City Council on March 16 unanimously approved ordinance 21-36-26 to strengthen the city's ability to address repetitive, harassing or menacing misuse of 911.

Police Chief Hernandez told the council the ordinance is intended to provide a tool to handle callers who repeatedly tie up dispatch with abusive calls that are not legitimate emergencies. "There's an exemption for people who in good faith really intend to request emergency services," Hernandez said. He outlined a response process in which dispatch and officers would warn repeat callers and, if abusive behavior continued, forward cases to the prosecutor for review for potential misdemeanor charges. Hernandez also said the ordinance includes civil penalties as an alternative enforcement tool.

Council members expressed broad support and asked for clarification on mechanics and intent. Council Member Rapport noted the ordinance accounts for accidental dials and gives officers discretion to distinguish abuse from mistakes; Council Member Roberts emphasized the stress on 911 operators and welcomed tools to reduce repeated non-emergency calls.

Hernandez described the targeted behavior as callers who scream profanity at dispatchers, threaten dispatch staff or repeatedly hang up and call back with no emergency, sometimes exploiting features that automatically call 911 from devices. He said the city would first warn offenders and then forward persistent cases to the prosecutor for possible charges.

The council voted unanimously to adopt the ordinance; Hernandez said the ordinance would give the police department an additional tool to protect dispatch resources and reduce stress on operators.