NBC News recently featured legislation by Assemblyman John J. Benoit that cracks down on false 911 calls in a special report on non-emergency calls made on 911 lines.

The news report touched on a troubling trend across the country with 911 emergency systems being tied down with frivolous phone calls.

Illustrative of this trend is one Florida man who dialed 911 numerous times to complain about mayonnaise and mustard being left off his Subway sandwich order.  Another man in Hayward, California made as many as 27,000 prank calls to 911, telling authorities he made the calls "because it's free."  Non-emergency 911 calls account for 20-45% of cell phone calls made to 911 lines in California, and up to 50-80% in Sacramento.

In July, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Assembly Bill 1976, Benoit's measure that strengthens fines for fraudulent 911 telephone calls.  Under current law, individuals who undermine emergency response with fraudulent 911 calls are given warnings on the first two offenses, with escalating fines for further offenses.  Benoit's law, which will take effect January 1, removes the second warning and imposes a $50 fine for the second offense, a $100 fine for a third offense, and a $250 fine for every subsequent offense.

"Having spent years responding to emergency situations where lives are in imminent danger, it disturbs me to think that some individuals are purposely undermining emergency responses with their abuse of 911 lines," commented Assemblyman Benoit.  "It is my hope that these stronger penalties will make people think twice before calling 911 with a non-emergency."

The written version of NBC's news story is available online at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26040857

Also, on Wednesday's "Pinhead & Patriots" segment on the O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly singled out the Subway sandwich/911 caller as a Pinhead. It's a pretty funny segment that can be seen at www.foxnews.com/oreilly, click on "Pinheads & Patriots" and click on the image of Earth, Wind & Fire.

Benoit has obtained and released audio recordings of false emergency calls on his Assembly website here.