Don't know if it's like this everywhere, but here if you dial 911 they are obligated to dispatch a police officer to your location. Even if you say "sorry I meant to call 411" or whatever, or just hang up, I guess they think you might be in a situation where you somehow were able to get to the phone and call 911 but then can't talk about the emergency.
Where’s here? I have never heard of this sort of policy.
Somewhat relevant: I have called 911 a few times to report near-emergencies (e.g., significant debris in the road, or extremely erratic driving; they forward me along)
Here in Australia, I recently was trying to get in touch with the non-emergency police number (I had seen 2 kids, one maybe 2 years old, the other 4 at most, playing alone, on the median strip of a dual carriageway road, with no one else in sight), via directory assist, but was redirected to 000 (Our emergency number), so I hung up, to try and get the direct number again. Within 5 seconds I was called back by emergency services, and asked to explain in detail what had happened, why I had hung up, and what the situation was.
The operator told me that, typically, they treat people hanging up at any stage during a 000 call extremely seriously, and will follow up, and will usually send officers out if the call is from a land line and they have an address, even if the caller says no officer is needed.
