PUBLIC ENCOURAGED TO EMBRACE 112/999 EMERGENCY CALLS
We want to encourage the public to embrace the use of the police emergency calls when faced with any imminent threat to life and public safety, and in situations which require urgent response. During the month of February, the National Emergency Command Centre, registered 294 valid/essential calls for service, and the highest number for calls was in response to cases involving accidents, where 20 were fatal, 48 serious, and 20 minor. This was followed by 39 calls due to mob actions, 37 calls due to fire outbreak, 13 cases of thuggery, 9 cases of aggravated robbery and only 07 cases of simple robbery among others.
In all these cases, the police dispatched response teams that registered positive outcomes on crime and safety.
The emergency center now has 60 accessibility pots, which can receive over 100 emergency calls at ago, with plans to expand the pots to 400. Our primary focus is to improve our response time to emergencies within the KMP areas to 15 minutes especially those that involve a potential threat to life.
As we migrate to the new system, we shall be able to detect the location of the handset and alert the nearest response team. The system also has the ability to track down “fake” calls to divert our attention
We would like to further inform members of the public, who make calls for no good reason, that their actions not only affect our response time but endangers the life of those facing imminent threats.
We further urge phone operators like MTN, Airtel, Africell , to regularly advertise their call help lines in the media so that the public can know and be helped quickly, instead of congesting police emergency lines
The public is also called upon to embrace target hardening options which can delay criminals at the scene like strong door locks, hiring professional security guards, alarms, which come with an additional cost but worth saving a life.
CP Enanga Fred
Police Spokesperson
4th March 2019
