Lincolnshire Police: Android glitch blamed for spike in 999 calls

The spike is thought to be partly due to an Android smartphone update, police said

Lincolnshire Police has blamed an Android smartphone glitch for a sharp rise in 999 calls.

In June, the force dealt with a record 13,713 emergency calls, with an average of 110 abandoned or silent calls a day.

The spike is thought to be partly due to an Android update, which triggers the Emergency SOS feature when a side button is pressed repeatedly.

The previous record for the highest number of 999 calls in a month was in August 2022, with 12,972 calls.

"Nationally, emergency (999) demand has been increasing around 10% year on year for the last 10 years, so this is not an issue unique to Lincolnshire Police," a force spokesperson said.

"However, the main driver of this particularly high demand has been linked to the Android issues that have been well documented causing an exceptionally high number of abandoned [or] silent 999 calls.

"In June alone we were averaging around 110 abandoned/silent 999 calls per day, which is up from around an average of 50 per day earlier in the year," they added.

'Don't hang up'

Officers also urged people not to hang up if they dial 999 by mistake and let the operator know as every silent emergency call is followed up.

Google, which develops the most widely-used Android phone software, has said it was up to manufacturers who chose to offer Emergency SOS on their devices to manage how the feature worked on their phones.

"To help these manufacturers prevent unintentional emergency calls on their devices, Android is providing them with additional guidance and resources," a spokesperson said.

Smartphones that run on Android operating systems include Samsung's Galaxy and Google's Pixel handsets.

A patch released in early July was expected to have addressed the issue, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.