A False Call to 911 Can Be Costly
Calls made to the emergency service 911 can save lives, dispatching emergency services like a fire truck, an ambulance or police to the scene of an emergency.

However, many make calls received by 911 service are not and emergency and worse yet, a prank. This ties up the emergency lines and the resources of personnel in the face of a real emergency.

Thus, the 911 emergency service has been charging for "false" calls to it's service. 

Since May of 2004, the emergency service says it has already fined 815 callers, while another 598 are in the process. Before the fines were put in place, thousands of "false" calls were received each month. The fines have reduced the number of "false" calls, according to Luis Alfaro, lawyer for the 911.

Alfaro said that about ¢4.1 million colones (us$8.600) have been levied in fines that are collected through the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) - the telephone company - charged to the owner of the telephone line and appearing on the monthly billing.

The lawyer said the 911 service is considering using the money for a public campaign to promote the correct use of the service.

The law states that 1 to 10 false calls to the 911 emergency service will cost the equivalent of 25% of the basic salary of a first class office employee or about ¢41.925 colones (us$88.50). False calls after the first 10 will increase the fine to 50% or ¢83.350 colones (us$177).

Manuel Loaiza, who runs the department of statistics for 911, says that of the 458.000 calls made to the service from January to April of this year, 14.000 were a mistake or false.

Each telephone subscriber pays ¢79.56 (us$0.17) per month for maintaining the 911 service. The amount was increased from ¢76 colones approved on April 12 by the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) - the regulating authority on public prices and services.