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VERIFY | Should you dial 112 when you are pulled over by unmarked police car?

There's a post making the rounds on Facebook with an urgent message telling people that if you are pulled over by an unmarked police car,  call 112 for help. We VERIFY if that's the right choice.

You're alone in the car and suddenly another vehicle orders you to pull over.

There's no clear indication it's a cop, and it's a dark stretch of road.

What do you do?

There's a post making the rounds on Facebook with an urgent message similar to this scenario. It tells people that if if happens to you, call 112 for help.

So we asked our VERIFY team to find out: Should you dial 112 when you are pulled over by an unmarked police car?

The post tells the story of Lauren, who was in that position but knew not to pull over right away. She promptly called 112 on her cell phone and minutes later, 4 police cars surrounded the unmarked car to arrest the man, who was a convicted rapist and wanted for other crimes.

SOURCES

To VERIFY 112, we contacted:

  • Geauga County Sheriff Scott Hildebrand
  • Holly Hollingsworth with AT&T, who said they wouldn't comment on 112
  • and The Ohio State Highway Patrol

In fact, we even tried the number ourselves while on I-90 going through Lake County. The call did go to emergency dispatch, but we're told that might not work with every network and every phone.

"When you dial 911, you know who is gonna be on the other end of that phone," said Hildebrand. "It's gonna be a police or law enforcement dispatcher. If you dial 112 and somebody answers it, you don't know who they are."

So...should you dial 112 when you are pulled over by an unmarked police vehicle?

No.

You should dial 911. And that's Verified.

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