Starting Aug. 1, Scottsdale residents who dial 911 for anything short of a real emergency could find themselves facing a criminal charge. The City Council has approved a new ordinance targeting people who repeatedly clog up emergency lines with calls about things like non‑hazardous parties, parking squabbles or even requests for directions, in an effort to keep dispatchers free for life‑or‑death situations.
On July 2 the council adopted Ordinance No. 4704, which adds Sections 19‑38 through 19‑44 to the Scottsdale Revised Code and creates a new offense for misuse of the 911 system, according to the City of Scottsdale. The council report includes the full ordinance language along with staff analysis that lays out the city's reasoning and how enforcement is supposed to work.
What counts as an emergency?
The ordinance draws a line between life‑threatening incidents such as fires, medical emergencies, hazardous leaks and missing persons, and more routine headaches like non‑hazardous nuisance issues, calls for directions or complaints about city services, as reported by KJZZ. Scottsdale Police spokesman Aaron Bolin told KJZZ that a noisy neighborhood party, for example, typically does not meet the threshold for a 911 call.
How enforcement and costs could work
The new rules make it a criminal offense to intentionally, knowingly or recklessly contact the 911 system for a non‑emergency and allow courts to order convicted callers to repay reasonable emergency‑response costs, according to AZFamily. Local reporting notes that the crackdown is aimed at chronic abusers who tie up dispatchers and slow response times for genuine emergencies.
Why officials say the change is needed
Scottsdale emergency dispatchers handle about 100,000 calls each year, and city staff told reporters that nuisance and repeat callers are bogging down the system and diverting first responders, according to KJZZ. When a situation is not an immediate hazard, residents are urged to use the police non‑emergency line at 480‑312‑5000, as noted in a recent report on the police non-emergency line.
Legal consequences
The ordinance includes an affirmative defense for callers who had a "good‑faith, reasonable factual basis" to believe an emergency existed. Outside of that protection, intentional misuse of 911 is treated as a Class 1 misdemeanor, and courts are allowed to order reimbursement of response costs, according to the City of Scottsdale. Under Arizona law a Class 1 misdemeanor carries a maximum of six months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500, according to the Arizona Legislature (A.R.S. §13‑707; A.R.S. §13‑802).
