Emergency personnel ask residents to check Android settings after spike in accidental 911 calls

Authorities in Anoka County are asking residents to check the emergency settings on their Android phones due to a recent spike in accidental 911 calls.

The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office and the county’s emergency communications department says a recent Android software update makes phones automatically call 911 if the power button is pressed five times in a row.

Officials say the feature can be disabled by going to the phone’s settings and selecting the “Emergency SOS” feature and turning it off.

In just the past month, the sheriff’s office says the county has gotten around 2,000 more open line/hang up calls than in March and April, and the deputies were sent to an extremely high number of accidental calls this past weekend, which the department believes is due to the Android update.

The sheriff’s office notes that law enforcement responds to every open line/hang up call to ensure everything is OK, and the department would greatly appreciate it if residents disabled the feature or took extra care to ensure phones don’t accidentally dial 911.