The government reports that only 46% of 1,055,466 total number of emergency 999 phone calls are for real. A big portion of these calls don't fit under 999 emergency dial call. The problem is that many of these undeserving calls originated from 1) people who think their case is classified as emergency and dialing 999 is appropriate and 2) people who simply wanted to prank or find out how emergency response team answer calls.
Police say misuse will delay the handling of genuine emergencies and endanger lives of people at risk by delaying their access to service.
Easy to remember
999 is a convenient telephone number to call. Such easy to remember number is good news to those who can hardly memorize a lot of things. But at the same time, it's a bane to those receiving the calls who may get to deal calls with either abusive (hanging up once someone answers the phone) or innocent (I'm sorry I thought I can call '999' if thieves ransacked my shop last night) nature.
Accidental calls
Mobile phones are one of the main sources of accidental or prank calls. Due to its repetitive format, 999 gets easily dialed without the knowledge of the mobile phone owner.
Punishments?
One way to prevent proliferation of hoax, prank and accidental calls is to punish those who make hoax calls. Others are resorting to shame campaigns by rebroadcasting prank calls to almost a million people.
Education
Punishments are good deterrents but I am sure these are not the only solution. Proper public education like introduction in school on when to call should help minimize the problem.
Wrong 999 calls are a big problem that should be addressed in order to facilitate quick response to real and genuine emergency cases.
Photo credit: M Bing Bing
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