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i used to relieve our dispatchers at my old department, and worked a couple of dispatch shifts when they were short handed. we had 3 911 lines. for every one accident, you'll get 50+ calls on it. i never let a line go, but sometimes they rang a while before i got to them.

i worked a wreck on the highway and had to shut down an entire side. the dispatcher told me that a lady called 911 and demanded a police escort through the traffic to pick up her mother at the airport. crap like that is not uncommon. when the power goes out, 911 lines burn up with people wanting cops to go fix the lines. older people call 911 wanting numbers to businesses and stuff. they have not gotten the 1411 concept.

larger cities also create their own 911 problems. for us, it was for emergencies only. if you called and it wasn't, they'd typically tell you to hang up and provide you with the non-emergency number to free up the 911 lines. big agencies (fort worth i know is bad about it) will tell someone who wants to report a burglary that happened last year to hang up and call 911. they take general bull reports over 911.

so you have some agencies saying 911 is for emergencies, and others saying 911 is for police service regardless of nature.