The emergency number 112 is abused – Swedish Dagbladet

The emergency number 112 is abused – Swedish Dagbladet

Four in ten calls to the emergency number does nothing but takes valuable time away from the real cases.

Calls to the police constitute the second largest category of all calls to the emergency number 112 More than 617 000 SOS call reaches police operators each year. Nearly 124 000 call is never presented as they are not in emergency situations.

But some slip through, even though they should not. Others come through the switchboard on 114 14 or engaged by the police contact center which can be reached at the same number.

– The connected incorrectly, the talks are taking up too much of our time. It allows those who are in need for real will have to wait, says an operator who works at one of the country’s major communications centers.

112 is an emergency number know many. But not everyone interprets distress as a situation involving immediate danger.

– A warden called and wanted to know how he could get the registration number of a car based on the chassis number. The car is great parked so close to another car that license plate could not see, says the operator.

Another perceived emergency, reproduced in a column in the Indianapolis newspaper, was a man who called for urgent police assistance to remove an aggressive, sizzling hedgehog. He was one in a series of callers who did not get the police assistance he required. It may not be parents asking for help with angry child who refuses to stop playing computer games.

The examples, however, despite the majority of calls that wrongly ports of operators, who must ensure that police officers receive information on matters of acute nature is not particularly spectacular. They may take the injured small animals, police reports that are not urgent or cases is a matter for example street duty or other municipal activities.

At SOS Alarm says press spokesman Anders Klarström that the proportion of false calls has to be down.

– There is a very high figure of 40 per cent, but it has gotten better. When it was at its worst, it was 60 percent that should not have called 112, he said.

When it comes to talk to the police is a problem that 114 14, police number for non-emergency events are still not known by all.

– It has been around nine and a half years, says Klarström.