Surge in bogus calls overwhelms Punjab Police helpline

• Callers’ location and response teams to be monitored under revamped mechanism

LAHORE: The Punjab Police is gearing up to enhance its emergency helpline 15 system in response to a deluge of false calls and complaints about inadequate or tardy responses. The proposed measures involve implementing mechanisms for identifying and locating callers, as well as monitoring the actions of the responding teams.

During the last calendar year, a staggering 20 million calls out of more than 30 million calls received on the helpline, throughout the province, turned out to be spurious. This translates to a disconcerting two-thirds ratio of fake emergency calls received via the helpline during the year, Express Tribune reported on Thursday.

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An official revealed that a significant number of time-wasting calls had been made by children, who, it was discovered, were handed mobile phones by their parents to avoid disruptions. The children, either consciously or inadvertently, dialled the helpline as its number was on the speed dial option.

Despite the police having identified and issued warnings to repeat offenders, including children, through registered First Information Reports (FIRs), the issue persists, and the number of hoax callers has not diminished.

Simultaneously, complaints regarding delayed or insensitive responses from police teams continued unabated throughout the year. To address these concerns, the police leadership is contemplating radical interventions.

A senior officer disclosed that the proposed measures include accessing the location and identification details of the callers. The helpline control room will retrieve details about the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card used to dial 15 and its location.

Furthermore, information about the responding police teams, including the identities of team members and the location of their vehicles, will be made available to the control room. Citizens will also have the opportunity to provide feedback on the response and conduct of police officials attending to emergency calls.

The control room will closely monitor response times by utilizing live location details of the police teams, tracking their journey from receiving calls to reaching the locations of the callers.