Only 234 of the 36,080 calls received through the 917 emergency lines were genuine

From the 36,080 calls received through the 917 emergency lines, only 234 calls were genuine.

These are calls received from the 1st to the 25th of February this year.

Chief Operations Officer ACP Sakeo Ganivatu says with thousands of calls received daily, it is worrying to note that most were prank or blank calls.

He says 19,072 were blank calls and 13,601 were prank calls.

ACP Ganivatu says these calls tie up critical phone lines and delay first responders’ ability to respond to real emergency calls.

He says these sorts of calls delay their service delivery and people who are desperately in need of their services are being left out because the lines are usually engaged.

The Police Chief of Operations says they have identified a few frequent callers and will be investigating them further.

ACP Ganivatu is pleading with members of the public not to play around with the 917 Police Emergency Lines as people who need assistance depend on it.