Marion Co. 911 issues reminder about when to call 911 vs 311

MARION COUNTY — 911 dispatchers in Marion County are preparing for their busiest weekend of the year ahead of the Fourth of July on Monday.

On New Year's Eve, the 911 center experienced an outage after dispatchers received more than 1,000 calls within 4-5 minutes past midnight, including 206 in a one-minute time frame.

"We have a technician on site and the system has been tested and we are fully prepared to go into [this weekend] so we have redundancies in place," Marion County 911 Center Director Michael R. Hubbs said.

In Marion County, people can call 311 from mobile devices or 317-327-3811 for non emergency calls. 311 only works from mobile devices.

"Our dispatchers have to focus on those true emergency calls. So unfortunately, the 911 system is abused daily, we have lots of calls that come in to the center or the 911 Center that frankly shouldn't be there, but we have to answer them," Hubbs said. "We want to get through everyone efficiently and in to help. It really is a serious situation at the 911 Center every year this time of year."

Provided/Marion County 911

Hubbs says if you're in doubt if it was a firework or gunshot, call 911 and law enforcement will investigate. Illegal firework activity and other incidents that are not immediate risks to people or property should be reported to 311.