# How do I stop my arse from calling the police?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-my-arse-from-calling-the-police/685638>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 8, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-my-arse-from-calling-the-police/685638 "2014-04-08T14:55:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-my-arse-from-calling-the-police/685638/41 "2014-04-12T22:01:41Z")

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To protect the glass, I always buy cases for smartphones with a cover. I never had a butt call for over 10 years.

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**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-my-arse-from-calling-the-police/685638/42 "2014-04-12T23:23:25Z")

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> [@Iggy](#):
>
> Anywhere you dial 9 to get an outside line just opens up all sorts of possibilities… particularly if callers don’t understand that then dial 011 for an international number requires dialing the 0.

I’ve never understood why dialling 8 is not the standard digit for getting an outside line in Canada and the USA. Where I used to work, we’d hear on the ceiling speakers about once a month: “Would the person who accidentally dialled 911 please call the switchboard NOW!”

Did “dial 9” predate 911?

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**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-my-arse-from-calling-the-police/685638/43 "2014-04-13T00:32:56Z")

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> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> Did “dial 9” predate 911?

Yes.

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**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-my-arse-from-calling-the-police/685638/44 "2014-04-13T01:08:49Z")

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^^^Thought I should expand on a simple “Yes.”

Before push-button phones, dialling 9 on a rotary phone for an outside line was common.

Winnipeg introduced [\*\* 999\*\*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lmNzt_W7zU) in 1959, switching to 911 in 1972. Push-button phones weren’t introduced until 1963, [**Wikipedia says**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push-button_telephone), long before butt dialling was a thing.

[\*\*How Stuff Works says \*\*](http://people.howstuffworks.com/question664.htm)about the choice of 911,

> [@](#):
>
> In 1967, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) met with AT&T to establish such an emergency number. They wanted a number that was short and easy to remember. More importantly, they needed a unique number, and since 911 had never been designated for an office code, area code or service code, that was the number they chose.

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