Aurora cops remind public: We're not the electric company

Aurora police are urging residents to become familiar with the ComEd customer hotline in the wake of a Thursday night power outage.

So many residents called 911 to report the outage that police said safety could have been jeopardized.

"A barrage of telephone calls placed to the 911 center immediately following a power outage Thursday night was not only unnecessary, but could have slowed response to people in true need of emergency assistance," police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said Friday.

Within the first 15 minutes of the outage, Ferrelli said dispatchers handled 42 calls regarding the outage.

ComEd spokesman Luis Diaz-Perez said about 7,200 customers were without power from 6:59 to 7:36 p.m. Thursday. As of Friday afternoon, the cause had not yet been determined.

Within minutes, police said, 911 operators became "deluged" with calls about the outage that forced them to field questions outside their realm.

"As operators were spending time on these questions, response to emergencies was potentially delayed," Ferrelli said.

After numerous calls were taken in reference to the outage, one was received that reported an accident on the 300 block of Claim Street involving a car hitting a power pole.

Although the call proved to be a false alarm, police said the problem of citizens making non-emergency calls to 911 made checking out the incident more difficult.

Diaz-Perez said it's rare for a police department to field so many calls regarding an outage.

"Most of our customers don't hesitate to call us in these situations and that's what we encourage," he said. "Our call center is open 24 hours a day at 1-800-Edison1 and that's where outages should be reported."