It's a lifeline between you and the nearest police, fire fighters and paramedics -- 911 helps people across North America in a life-or-death emergency, including right here in Winnipeg.

It's also used in some cases for the wrong reasons. In the 911 world, these calls are often referred to as nuisance calls.

It's an ongoing issue for dispatchers because it can cause a backlog for people who really need help.

Each day, hundreds of 911 calls come into the Winnipeg Police Service communications centre.

Dispatchers assess each call and then determine the appropriate response. In some cases, there's no emergency at all.

"Sometimes people will phone in asking if we know what time it is,” said WPS senior police communications operator Janette Hedley. “They might phone because they want to order pizza."

The Winnipeg Police Service provided some of these calls to CTV News. We agreed to alter the voices of the callers to protect their identity.

The calls ranged from people asking for directory assistance to requests for help with a problem parking meter.

One caller phoned 911 looking for help to connect with a company to make changes to a cable television package. Another caller wanted to know the hours of operation for the Brady Landfill.

"It ties up that operator, first and foremost, because now that operator's not available for an emergency that could be waiting behind the call," said Hedley.

Winnipeg police don't have a way of tracking how often nuisance calls happen, but Insp. Kendra Rey, commander of the WPS communications centre, said these calls come in far more often than they should.

"They're calling for information. They're calling because they want to know something, but it's not really an emergency,” said Rey.

Even if the call is bogus, dispatchers have to ask enough questions to make sure it's not an emergency.

The WPS said the majority of 911 calls come from cell phones, which help keep people better connected to emergency services, but that also means dispatchers get more nuisance calls.

“I think just the fact that people have a phone in their hand all the time, that we absolutely get more nuisance calls as a result of that,” said Rey.

Nuisance calls also come in different forms.

For instance, sometimes will people will call 911 and then hang up. That means dispatchers have to try to call back or send police to check on the address where the call came from, which not only ties up dispatchers, it ties up officers on the street.

If you do call accidentally, don’t hang up.

“Definitely stay on the line and finish that call and don’t hang up until that 911 operator tells you to hang up,” said Rey.

Another problem are calls that come from deactivated cell phones -- those phones are still capable of calling 911 but the majority of calls that come from deactivated phones aren't for real emergencies.

You can be charged for making an unnecessary 911 call. It's rare, but not unheard of.

“It would fall under public mischief,” said Rey. “There’s something in the criminal code where if you engage emergency services into an investigation falsely, it would really fall under that realm. But at the same time, what is the intent?”

Dispatchers and police don't want to discourage people from calling, but they only want you to use 911 when there's a real emergency.