@JLeslie The differences include:
Calling 911 acting silly is:
* wasting a needed emergency response communication channel
* explicitly against the law
* actively initiated by the silly person
* making an actual report
And yet, people who call 911 with silly or even hostile nonsense are often given multiple warnings before being charged.
In contrast, being randomly stopped by police for no reason, and then acting intoxicated, is:
* adding a cause for suspicion to a resource already allocated to mostly investigating innocent people
* not explicitly against the law
* passively behaving in a certain way, which may cause an officer to make an incorrect conclusion, (but that shows how drawing conclusions from behavior is not a reliable way to determine intoxication)
* not making a report in any way
* possibly an exercise of Constitutionally-protected freedom
Of course, it depends on how exactly the person behaves. And I’m not saying it’s wise and not wasting police time. But wasting police time in non-emergency situations is generally not a crime.
And it just doesn’t fit the description of “false report”.