Calling 911 in an emergency is the best thing anybody can do. It gets emergency personnel to the scene quickly and efficiently and can be the difference sometimes between life and death.

But there are those in the community who think it's funny to call 911 when nothing is wrong. And for those people, law enforcement agencies in Texas County have a message — make a false 911 call and you will get in trouble.

According to Guymon Police Chief Eddie Adamson, Oklahoma Statute 63, Chapter 58, Section 2819 says that knowingly providing false information or making a false statement is a misdemeanor that carries a fine up to $500 plus the cost of dispatching any emergency equipment or personnel.

"We have had some issues here," Adamson said. "We regularly get calls that are unfounded."

Usually, someone dials 911 from a pay phone, then takes off. The officer shows up, and nobody's there."That takes time away from their regular duties to tend to someone who is playing around, at best," Adamson said. "Sometimes they do it to have us go to another location so they can try to do something else at another location."

Guymon Police Communications Specialist Kim Brumley said that the department received 47 911 calls in May 2008. That includes legitimate 911 emergency calls, or 911 unknowns, which are hang-ups or sometimes children playing with the phone. "Five of those (in May) were definitely unnecessary," Brumley said. "About 10-20 a month (on average) are unnecessary."

Brumley said that a lot of calls are children who dial 911 by accident or who are playing around. "The officer will speak to the parents and advise they can be cited because (911) is for emergencies," she said.

Texas County Sheriff Arnold Peoples said that he hasn't experienced many problems in the county. "We have some (911 hangups)," Peoples said. "We always try to do our best to get to the bottom of it, whether it be to call them back if it's a misdial or kids playing on the phone."

If they don't reach anybody by calling the number back, they will send a deputy to the scene."That gets rather expensive because of the cost of fuel," Peoples said. "If it becomes a problem from a particular number, we would fine. But we've never had that situation, fortunately."