Kelowna RCMP seeing increase in false 911 calls from smartwatches

Photo: Apple

Kelowna RCMP says they are seeing a trend that has been identified in other parts of the province, false 911 calls from smartwatches.

“Kelowna RCMP respond to all calls but this potentially could cause police, fire or ambulance the inability to respond to a real emergency in a timely manner,” said RCMP spokesperson Const. Mike Della-Paolera, on Wednesday.

Kelowna RCMP along with other emergency services have recently responded to six separate false 911 calls so far this ski season. All have been the result of smart watch owners being unaware the “SOS function” has been turned on.

When a skier or snowboarder falls wearing their smartwatch, the built-in SOS function contacts the RCMP and emergency services because the watch believes the rider was involved in a serious vehicle crash.

The latest incident took place on the afternoon of Jan. 10, after the watch believed a crash had occurred and emergency services were deployed. The watch’s GPS coordinates showed the location at a local area ski resort and because the call did not provide a call back number, RCMP were unable to locate the source causing an unnecessary emergency response which included fire and ambulance services.

"Many people do not even realize that the feature is functioning. The RCMP is asking that smartwatch users go to settings within the watch, go to SOS and temporarily turn off [crash detection] when on the ski hills or doing other sporting activities," says Const. Della-Paolera.

Apple also updated its firmware in December to optimize the crash detection feature and they are strongly urging users to download it.

BC Search and Rescue issued a similar statement reinforcing the importance of updating the smartwatches firmware, indicating they too have been in touch with Apple regarding the false crash alerts.

Crash detection is available on the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Ultra.