--- title: Facebook Down: People Call Police in Los Angeles description: People called the police when Facebook went down according to tweets from LA County Sheriff Department Sgt Burton Brink canonical: https://time.com/3071049/facebook-down-police/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-01T19:30:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:07.323Z og:title: People Called the Police Because Facebook Went Down og:description: According to amusing tweets from a sergeant with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department og:url: https://time.com/3071049/facebook-down-police/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: People Called the Police Because Facebook Went Down twitter:description: According to amusing tweets from a sergeant with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # People Apparently Called the Police Because Facebook Went Down > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 1, 2014 7:30 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Aug 1, 2014 7:30 PM UTC If you freaked out about [Facebook going down](http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-is-down-2014-8) earlier today, we hope your next call wasn’t 911\. Sounds obvious, right? Apparently not to everyone, according to these tweets from Sergeant Burton Brink of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department: [#Facebook](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Facebook?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) is not a Law Enforcement issue, please don't call us about it being down, we don't know when FB will be back up! — Burton Brink Fighting for California (@LASDBrink) [August 1, 2014](https://twitter.com/LASDBrink/status/495246980075900928?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) [@moneyries](https://twitter.com/moneyries?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) yes, we get calls all the time like this, cable TV, all sorts of things not working, they think we control. — Burton Brink Fighting for California (@LASDBrink) [August 1, 2014](https://twitter.com/LASDBrink/status/495252166869663744?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) [@Brad\_Lovett](https://twitter.com/Brad%5FLovett?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) [@sistertoldjah](https://twitter.com/sistertoldjah?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) Yes, they do. We get it all the time. — Burton Brink Fighting for California (@LASDBrink) [August 1, 2014](https://twitter.com/LASDBrink/status/495252584211308544?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) Add this incident to the list of inappropriate times to call the police – from the British woman [who called](http://time.com/2819288/woman-calls-police-because-not-enough-sprinkles-on-ice-cream/) 999 because the ice cream man didn’t put enough sprinkles on her ice cream to the Florida woman [who called](http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/02/25/florida-woman-calls-911-because-of-raw-waffles/) 911 because she claimed a restaurant served her undercooked waffles. **LIST:** [Top 10 Non-Emergency 911 Calls](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1903486,00.html) **MORE:** [Woman Calls Police Because There Aren’t Enough Sprinkles on Her Ice Cream](http://time.com/2819288/woman-calls-police-because-not-enough-sprinkles-on-ice-cream/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3071049/facebook-down-police/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3071049/facebook-down-police/"},"headline":"People Apparently Called the Police Because Facebook Went Down","datePublished":"2014-08-01T19:30:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:07.323Z","description":"According to amusing tweets from a sergeant with the L.A. 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