| A senior officer said today staff were frustrated at the growing number of “idiots” putting a drain on resources — and warned that offenders will be punished.
Figures obtained by the Tele revealed that so far this year the control room at police HQ in Dundee has fielded over 500 inappropriate emergency calls.
Some of them have been from people simply wanting a chat because they have no credit on their mobile phone and can’t dial anyone else.
“That’s often people who are drunk and it’s totally inappropriate,” said Superintendent David Tonks, head of the force communications centre.
“We have a limited number of specialist operators available to take 999 calls, and if one of those operators is tied up it can delay the next person getting through.
“Other things we have had recently include someone phoning the emergency line to ask if a message could be passed to a certain police officer.
“We’ve had people calling us looking for taxis and, believe it or not, we’ve had people phoning up looking for directory assistance, asking for the phone number for such and such.
“It’s a challenging job the staff in the control centre have, and they are trying to do the best they can for the public.
“To then receive a call from some idiot who is getting a kick out of wasting the time of the emergency services or is just not thinking of others is a real frustration for our staff.”
Around half of the inappropriate calls received at the communications centre are hoaxes, often involving young people.
“We are particularly frustrated, on behalf of the public, by those hoax calls which are made maliciously,” continued Mr Tonks.
“These are people going out of their way to call 999 to try to instigate a response, which then is a real drain on resources.”
Mr Tonks said their figures suggested hoax calls were “increasing slightly” as a result of people having ready access to communications technology such as mobile phones and internet-based telephony.
“Where we can identify those responsible they will be prosecuted,” he added.
“We will use technology to track them down, their phone will be taken away from them and they will be charged accordingly.
“We have in the past had successful convictions in court.”
The remainder of the inappropriate calls includes accidental dialling from mobile phones kept in pockets and bags and young children playing with handsets.
“These calls are less of an issue for us as we absolutely encourage the education of kids around the 999 number, and there have been quiet a few instances were children have been able to help by dialling treble nine,” said Mr Tonks.
“But we would simply ask parents to make sure their kids are aware it is a very important number and they don’t call us unless something important is happening.
“It’s not a number to play with.” |
