Interfering with an Emergency Communication

Interfering with an emergency communication is a Class A1 misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of 150 days in jail. Many people do not believe that violent domestic disputes are serious enough to warrant the police being called. They believe that it is an internal family matter where outside people should not be involved. As a result, lots of fighting spouses force the other to hang up 911 calls. As a result of this, misdemeanor interfering with an emergency communication is a fairly frequent crime in domestic violence court. For one to be found guilty of this offense, he or she must intentionally interfere with an emergency communication, knowing that the communication was an emergency, while not making an emergency communication himself or herself, or interferes with an emergency communications instrument or equipment with the intent of preventing emergency communication.

Examples of this would be pulling out the phone jack when someone is trying to call 911 or hanging up the phone while someone is talking to the 911 dispatcher.