A Cable Outage Is Not An Emergency That Rates Calling 911

Look, it doesn’t matter how important it is to be up to date on the latest happenings on “Dexter” or “Breaking Bad” before you get to the office on Monday. When your cable goes out, the proper reaction is to wait for a few minutes, then (perhaps) to call your cable company to make sure it isn’t just you. That is not how the good people of Connecticut reacted last night.

On their Facebook page, the Fairfield, Connecticut police department put out a public service announcement. 911 is for emergencies only. A Cablevision outage is not an emergency.

The police put up this notice on their Facebook page, but have since taken it down since the ridiculousness attracted worldwide media attention.

We are receiving numerous 911 calls regarding the Cablevison [sic] outage. This is neither an emergency nor a police-related concern. Please direct your inquiries to Cablevision. 911 should be called for Life Threatening Emergencies ONLY. Incidents that are not of an emergency nature may be reported to the Fairfield Police Department at 203-254-4800. Misuse of the 911 system may result in an arrest.

Note that they do not provide advice for what people should do when their cable goes out. Your job is to protect the people, Fairfield Police! Get on it!

Cablevision, customers report outage [CT Post]

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