Legislation coming to deal with 119 prank calls

The Government is crafting legislation to treat with the issue of prank calls to the police's 119 emergency number.

This, as the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is reporting that approximately 85 per cent of calls to 119 are prank calls.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Emergency Communication Centre, Gary Francis, told JIS News that the JCF receives an estimated 5,000 to 9,000 calls per day.

"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," Francis said. He said that the police will use moral suasion, but they will soon be armed with legislation to deal with the long-standing issue. He also noted that the JCF sees an uptick in prank calls during the hours after schools are dismissed.

"We do know that sometimes the calls are made by accident; for example, people can pocket dial, but persons need to be mindful," Francis said.