Hoax calls to Coast Guard need to stop

One has to wonder what goes through the mind of someone who makes a hoax call to a police or fire department or other emergency-service providers.

Does the caller think it’s a funny joke or prank?

Do they feel important or powerful because it was their call that prompted an emergency response, sometimes involving a considerable number of first responders?

Whatever the reasons behind making emergency calls that are plain and simple fabrications, we find the practice disturbing. Or perhaps “distressing” is a more appropriate word for this commentary.

That’s because the U.S. Coast Guard recently reported that the number of false distress calls has nearly tripled in 2017, compared with the number received last year by the same time.

“A false distress or hoax call can be made by phone or over a marine radio by a person claiming to be in distress, intentionally deceiving others and causing an unnecessary search,” reads a June 29 statement from the U.S. Coast Guard 9th District Great Lakes Public Affairs Office. “There have been more than 160 false distress calls made to date across the Great Lakes compared to 55 similarly in 2016.”

It’s too bad that the perpetrators don’t think ahead of time about the harm they could cause by making false distress calls to the Coast Guard.

First of all, hoax calls endanger the lives of first responders who go out on water rescue missions. In addition, these phony calls could ultimately slow response to legitimate emergencies on the water.

“False distress and hoax calls expose not only Coast Guard rescuers, but our partner agencies and other mariners to unnecessary risks, and potentially take away personnel and resources from real emergencies,” said Capt. Joseph McGilley, chief of incident management for the Ninth Coast Guard District, which encompasses the entire Great Lakes region.

It’s important to note that the Coast Guard treats all emergency calls as if they were real until they can be proved otherwise. And with some calls, rescuers could be tied up a long time.

Lake County Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Izzo works with the sheriff’s marine patrol around the Lake Erie coastline, and the Chagrin and Grand rivers. He said when water rescuers respond to a distress call, it’s all about locating and identifying that person, boat or whatever the case may be, based on the call itself. And when dealing with a caller’s description, that could be over miles of open water.

Izzo added that, along with water-based help, public safety entities on land may also be preparing to help.

“With that in mind, anytime there is an emergency response relative to the water, there may be (rescuers) on land who are also responding to the scene,” he said. “And, any time you have public safety personnel responding to an emergency situation, that potentially puts them, and the public, in danger.”

With rescuers going out on the water and other emergency personnel on the shore responding, it’s easy to see how an intentionally false distress call can drain taxpayer dollars.

“The average cost of launching a Coast Guard response boat is about $4,500 an hour, while the cost of a Coast Guard helicopter involved in a search could run as high $16,000 an hour. A hoax Mayday case can sometimes last an average of 3 hours before it is called off,” the June 29 Coast Guard statement reads. “The costs of legitimate calls are paid for by the federal government, which is funded by taxpayers.”

In addressing this problem, we want to reiterate a point emphasized by the Coast Guard. That is: People should make an emergency call when they genuinely think someone’s in trouble on the water. The Coast Guard encourages distress calls that are made in good faith, but the hoax calls are another matter.

For anyone who might be tempted to make a false distress call to the Coast Guard, keep this in mind: If you’re caught, you could face criminal charges.

Take a recent case out of Chicago, for example: “In 2017, a Chicago man was sentenced to six months in prison, three years of supervisory release and ordered to pay the Coast Guard $28,181 in restitution for knowingly calling in false distress calls of a body in the Chicago River on two separate occasions in 2014,” the Coast Guard reports.

Even if hoaxsters get away with making false distress calls for water emergencies, they need to consider how they might end up affecting the lives of other people like themselves, and not just the Coast Guard, police or firefighters involved in water rescues. What if a boater or swimmer died because first responders were tied up with a hoax call and couldn’t respond to the real emergency quickly enough?

Think about that, and maybe more people would think twice before making a false distress for a water emergency.