E-999 calls for laws against nuisance callers

WHILE the Emergency-999 department has been accused of lacklustre performance, the department has had to deal with 356,579 nuisance calls for the first three months of this year, statistics from the E-999 Command Centre revealed.

This figure is almost 17 times the number of calls the department has had to act on. The number of bonafide calls is 20,293 for a similar period. A breakdown of the nuisance calls shows sthat in January there were 126,564, 108,947 in February, while there were 121,068 last month. By contrast, there were 6,278 real calls in January, 6706 in February and 7309 in March, bringing to a total of 20,293 bonafide calls for the first three months.

The startling revelation has left E-999 officers as well as Glenn Shah, Director of Communications Network in the Ministry of National Security, pleading with the Government to introduce some kind of legislation to strongly deal with nuisance callers. “We need to look at this (legislation) very seriously,” Shah told Sunday Newsday in an interview. Shah said since he assumed his position in September of 2002, he has noticed a marked increase of nuisance calls, which seemed to have occurred during the Christmas period.

Most of the calls, he said, appear to be coming from school children, some of whom he said call the toll free emergency number and ask for fast foods. Adults, too, are said to play a major role in the nuisance calls, Shah said, explaining that some of the male callers request sex from the female call takers, and even use several expletives to them. The calls, Shah said, come from all over the country, while E-999 sources said children from the West are responsible for a large portion of the nuisance calls.

Shah said there are times when the call takers have called back the nuisance callers, only for them (call takers) to be told that they are not responsible. Some even terminate the calls on the E-999 staffers. “We want to give the people the opportunity to correct their thinking,” Shah said.  He added that it is not that the E-999 staffers are lacklustre. Rather, Shah said, because of the volume of calls coming in, the call takers are unable to decipher which calls are real and which are not. “It is very frustrating and one will never know when there is a real emergency,” he said.

Shah also said in order to enlighten the public about the happenings at the department, they will be holding a national public safety takeover week from April 13-19. “It will be a village type scenario, and we particularly want the children to come and see how the system works. They also need to recognise the people behind the scenes,” Shah said. Second to nuisance calls is disturbance calls which totalled 4181 for the first three months of the year, according to information from the E-999 Command Centre.

Domestic violence and people seeking information also had a high rating of 2137 and 2307 respectively, with bush fires and threats accumulating 1478 and 1336 individually.   Road traffic accidents stood at 1070 between January and March and there was also a high number of fights which numbered 1016, while strange men on premises stood at 957. Kidnappings, the country’s most popular crime, had a total of 42 for the initial three months. The E-999 responded to 16 in January, 14 in February and 12 in March. 

Commissioner of Police Hilton Guy revealed on Wednesday that there have been 65 reported kidnappings for the year.  This figure represents people who have been taken away from their vehicles against their will. Sources at the Anti Kidnapping Squad (AKS), however, said of the 65 reported kidnappings, only 12 of them have been committed for ransom demands, which has gone past the $20 million figure for the first three months. Just over $1.2 million has been paid out.