LAKEWOOD, Wash. - Dozens of Lakewood residents called Pierce County to complain about a series of calls made during the search for a disabled man last week.
As a result of the complaints, the Emergency Management Department is reviewing its policies regarding reverse-911 calls.
Last Thursday night, David Hegseth walked away from his home health care facility.
Hegseth, 50, is deaf and has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old. He was found safe the next morning in Federal Way.
While Hegseth was missing, Pierce County put out recorded calls to 11,000 homes and businesses last week. The calls were sent out around midnight and 6 a.m. so many of the recipients were woken up by the calls.
"I was confused. I said 'Why call us?'" said Josie Boeder who received one of the calls.
The message was recorded by a computer voice and, instead of being told to call 911, recipients were told to "call nine-hundred-eleven immediately."
Pierce County plans to make future calls easier to understand, and when possible, they will be recorded by humans.
But if an event is deemed an emergency, the calls will continue to go out, no matter what time it is.
"If it was your mom or dad that was lost, would you want everyone in the county looking for him or her?" asked Sheri Badger, a spokesperson for Pierce County Emergency Management.
Badger said the county has been issuing emergency calls since 2003. No incident has generated as many complaints as last week's case.
An estimated 75 people called the county to complain, mostly about the time the calls were made, said Badger.
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