The Hindu : Front Page : Know when to call

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Wednesday, Dec 31, 2008
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Know when to call

Melbourne: ‘000’ emergency operators of Queensland have asked local people to use common sense when dialling the emergency number. The police emergency service complained of taking 95 per cent of calls for a non emergency purpose from people asking how to roast a chicken, order a taxi or to inform a girlfriend on a late arrival of her beau.

Police said over 60 per cent of triple-zero calls were made from mobile phones, and they blamed many of the false emergencies on people running out of credit on their mobiles — because it was a free call. “A man whose mobile phone was out of credit and was late to meet his girlfriend rang triple-zero asking someone to call his girlfriend for him,” operations support command Superintendent Brian Codd said adding “People are aware this is a free number they can call even when they don’t have any credit.”

He said the centre found less than 3 per cent of calls to 000 genuinely required an immediate response. Most were from people who “did not understand the 000 environment.” He said people should dial the emergency number only for life-threatening, time-critical emergencies. With as many as 5,000 triple-zero calls per week, police communications said they unnecessarily test the capacity to respond to genuine emergencies. — PTI

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