Little known emergency feature on iPhones

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- It’s not unusual to come across a post on social media telling you different things your phone is capable of, but sometimes determining whether the tip is fact or fiction can be a pain. 

A post circulating on Facebook claims you can easily use your iPhone to reach your local police department by pressing the power button on your iPhone five times. While many people have seen the tip they’re not quite sure if it’s true. So we put it to the test.

“I saw the post. It’s one of those things where I like saw the headline but didn’t really read the whole story. But I’ve heard of it and just not really sure if it’s legit or if it really works,” said Stephanie Hill, an iPhone owner.

So we talked to the best source we could find: the Police Chief. Chief Coury tested it out on his own phone and was surprised with the result.

“It does ring into your local 911 center. Inside the city limits, you know, if you’re using a cell phone it’s going to ring to the Zanesville Police Department,” said Chief Tony Coury of the Zanesville Police Department. “And if you’re outside the city limits it’s going to ring to the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Department.”

The thought is this shortcut will make it easy for someone who’s in an unsafe situation and may not be able to openly call 911 to get in touch with law enforcement and possibly save your life. Sara Shallcross tried the shortcut on her iPhone and said this is a feature that can come in handy in an emergency.

“To where if you weren’t able to talk in a situation or you were scared to talk in a situation you could just quickly make that call and have it connected to someone and have someone else aware of the situation you’re in,” said Shallcross.

Hill agreed it could be a life saver.

“If you were in a situation where you were, maybe where there was a robbery going on or even in your home where you can get to your phone that way and do it without having to like even verbally talk or do anything that gives away that you were calling 911,” said Hill. “I think that would be really helpful. Save a lot of lives probably.”

Chief Coury said this would definitely be helpful in an unsafe situation. He said once dispatch is reached they can’t hang up until an officer arrives at the caller’s location.

“We will pinpoint your location. We have that capability and we’ll eventually find you,” said Coury. “So if you can’t talk mute your phone, put it in your pocket, whatever, lay it down, and you know, hopefully within a short period of time we’re going to be able to locate you and come to your assistance.”

We did reach out to people with Android’s to see if this feature is available on their phones as well, but the people that we talked to did not know about it and they weren’t able to find an alternative.