The Government is in the process of crafting legislation to treat with the issue of prank calls to the Police’s 119 emergency number.

This comes as the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has reported that approximately 85 per cent of calls to 119 are prank calls.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Emergency Communication Centre, Gary Francis, told the Jamaica Information Service that the JCF receives an estimated 5,000 to 9,000 calls per day, the vast majority of which are not emergencies.  

“We really want to appeal to our citizens to empower and educate their neighbours, friends and children not to call the number in jest. We have a queuing system, so it is the first call that is sent that will be answered. Somewhere down that queue may be a very serious life-threatening call that we lose, because we didn’t get to it because of the number of calls coming in,” SSP Francis said.

He noted that the Police will use moral suasion, but they will soon be armed with legislation to deal with the longstanding issue.

“There is legislation that is on the way to treat with all of this, and there’s also the technological advancement that we’ll be able to identify those who are doing this. But before we even get to that place, we want to urge citizens to avoid using the line without a reasonable cause,” SSP Francis said.

ARE CHILDREN BEHIND THESE CALLS?

He noted that the JCF sees an uptick in prank calls during the hours after schools are dismissed.

 “There is this trend in the afternoon, and we call that the peak time when children come home from school. We even saw on one eight-hour shift where about 4,000 calls were received. We do know that sometimes the calls are made by accident; for example, people can pocket dial, but persons need to be mindful,” SSP Francis said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Development and Logistics Portfolio, Dr Kevin Blake, said persons need to understand the severity of the impact when prank calls are made to the emergency number.

“The word emergency means something to the JCF. It means someone is in need of help, and you might think it is fun, as you don’t see the harm in the end, but persons have lost their lives because we could not get to them in time, because of prank calls. So, parents, monitor your children, and for everyone, allow emergency calls to go through, because that’s what they are.”  Blake said.