Man calls 911 to report that sound of police sirens were ‘disturbing the peace’

Durham Regional Police are reminding the public that 911 is for emergencies only after a citizen recently called to complain that the sound of police sirens on the weekend were annoying him.

“I’m a resident here in Whitby and I hear the Durham Regional Police, the sirens are going off like every hour. Is everything OK?” the man inquired.

The patient dispatcher replied, “Well, it’s the weekend right? So it’s busy.”

“Busy with what?” the man replied. “I grew up here my whole life, I never hear sirens like this. It’s ridiculous. And unless there’s a lot of crime going on, I don’t know what you guys are doing, but it’s a bit of a disturbance to be honest.”

After the dispatcher explains that police are responding to a variety of emergencies and aren’t just blasting their sirens for the fun of it it, the man still stubbornly persists.

“To me, it just seems like the cops can maybe do a bit of a better job of not disturbing the peace,” the man concludes before the dispatcher advises him to call the non-emergency line if he’d like to file a complaint about police loudly responding to real emergencies.

Durham Regional Police says its 911 communicators answer more than 600 calls per day and the service shouldn’t be used for trivial complaints.