Abuse of 999 hotline worries police

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Friday May 7, 2010 00:00

 

Assistant Commissioner, Christopher Mbulawa has complained that they often receive false calls, which the public usually make with the intent of being a nuisance.

He told Mmegi yesterday that most of the phone calls they receive in a day are false calls from grown up people who intentionally mislead the police by reporting emergencies that never occurred.

'We often receive calls of emergency and when we go out we find that there is nothing happening.  We receive several calls saying there is fire and when we get to the said place we find that no fire ever occurred,' he explained. 

He said that in some instances, people make phone calls to insult the police or just someone they know. 'People make phone calls just to insult the police.  I don't know the cause of this, it is just a bad practice,' he said. 

He also expressed concern about parents who make emergency phone calls and then put a baby who cannot even talk properly on the phone.  'You will pick the phone and realise that a parent has put a baby on the phone to play with it.  This is disturbing!' he said.

Mbulawa is also disturbed by phone calls made by school going children, a practice more rampant when schools close.  'We have a lot of children making phone calls especially when schools close.  These I think are only children playing by themselves with no parent around.  Parents should teach their children to refrain from playing with telephones,' he said.

Mbulawa complained about people who call the emergency line to inquire about long reported cases. 'People call 999 and when you pick the phone they ask you about a case that they reported two or three years back at a certain police station,' he said. 

He said that some phone just to report petty issues that happened during the day.  'Some phone to report a co-worker who offended them during the day or any other person who could have done something to them. Mostly it is just petty issues, which are not emergencies at all.  People should cease from doing that,' he said. 

However, Mbulawa said that they do not consider it necessary to teach the public about the use of emergency lines or what kind of cases substantiate as emergency cases.  'People know what an emergency is and those who make the kind of calls I have talked about are just doing it intentionally, and I do not know for what reasons,' he said. 

'The emergency line is a 24-hour emergency police telephone line, which should be used for emergency purposes only,' he stressed.