In this day and age with cell phones everywhere, people expect help in an emergency anywhere at the touch of a button.

Our investigation found that some people are calling emergency officials with non-emergencies, calls that can tie up the lines in a place where every second counts.

Operators say people should use some common sense: ask yourself if before you pick up the phone if it's really something that requires police, fire fighters or an ambulance.

If you have any doubt, though, still call 911.

Hang-ups those are some of the most common problem calls.

"What I'll do is I'll call them back," said Jesse Creech, a Supervisor at the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center.

Operators have to assume the worst, and call back every single hang-up to make sure nothing's really wrong.

According to call center officials, operators receive more than 800,000 calls a year, 80,000 of which simply clog the lines and steal precious resources. That adds up to almost 220 calls a day.

"At least ten percent of the calls that we take here really don't belong on 911," said Director Barry Furey.

Other call center numbers are even worse: Durham County officials say roughly 25 percent of their incoming calls are not emergencies, while Cumberland County estimates it could be as high as 30 percent.

Many of them sound ridiculous; a woman calling because her dog's head was stuck or another calling because there was a deer in her yard.

"It gets to be very frustrating," said Creech. "I've been doing this for almost 23 years, and those calls waste our time quite a bit."

Click here to listen to examples of 911 calls that should have never been placed.

Dispatchers say they've heard it all, but these calls are no laughing matter.

"If you want to tell us there's a deer in your back yard eating grass, think about the fact that someone at the same time may be calling to say that a loved one is seriously injured, that there's a crime in progress," said Furey.

It's a waste of time for the 18 operators - at peak times - who serve 850,000 residents

Furey said bogus calls to 911 cost taxpayers at least $175,000 a year in wasted resources, and even that is probably a low estimate.

"Unfortunately, the call volume of a city and county this size sometimes really, really can overwhelm our resources," said Furey.

"If they'd realize what we do and how many real phone calls we actually answer that's real emergencies, that would let them see that we don't have time for the stuff that we don't need to be talking about," said Creech.

Call center officials say they can charge people who abuse 911 with a misdemeanor, but unless it's a prank call or a hoax, they usually try to explain why it's a problem, instead of coming down with a heavy hand.
If you accidently call 911, the best thing to do is stay on the line, and tell them it was a mistake, rather than force the operator to call back.

We took our findings to Raleigh City Council Member Russ Stephenson; he said he'd like to see Raleigh consider a simple, easy to remember non-emergency similar to 311 that other places use.

Non-emergency numbers:
Chatham County - (919) 542-2811
Cumberland County - (919) 323-1500
Durham County - (919) 560-4600
Johnston County - (919) 989-5611
Wake County - (919) 829-1911 

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Keep up with the stories Chris Cowperthwaite is working on every day: http://twitter.com/ChrisC_NBC17.

Contact him at ccowperthwaite@wncn.com.