Mobile phones waste police time

NEWS A quarter of all emergency calls to the police are the result of mobile users accidentally dialing 999. The emergency services have seen a 15 per cent rise in calls, and claim that this is directly related to the increase in mobile phone ownership. Scotland Yard revealed that these calls are causing the Met to fail to achieve its target of answering all emergency calls within 15 seconds and creating a potentially dangerous situation, by wasting valuable time and money. To combat the problem, Scotland Yard has introduced a new system called 'Silent Solution', which redirects accidental calls to emergency switchboards to an automated service where callers have the choice to be reconnected. If this option is not chosen the call is disconnected. However, since launch of 'Silent Solution' in early July, only 2,000 of 8,500 calls that Scotland Yard receives a day have been diverted, but since installing the system, 88 per cent of all calls have been answered within 15 seconds compared to only 53 per cent. More efficient alternatives are being looked into by the Met. Commander Duncan Croll, who is responsible for the Met's communications programme, said: "We are in contact with mobile phone manufacturers to make them aware of the problem and we hope to see changes to the design of phones. The mobile phone industry must take more responsibility to tackle this life threatening situation."