Not long ago I was on a dual carriageway and saw that there was a tyre in one of the lanes. I called 999, and as soon as it connected I said “there is a tyre in the middle of the dual carriageway”. Anyway, the operator said “what service do you require”. Obviously, as I was driving I wasnt concentrating too much on the telephone conversation (ok ok, us men cant do two things at the same time). I repeated, “there is a tyre on the dual carriageway”.
The operator then said again “what service do you require”. I said “im not sure, there is this tyre on the dual carriageway” and he butted in “what service do you require”. Obviously I was pretty pi**** off with this guy by now, I said “I dont bloody know, I presume police”.
Anyway, I was then connected to a lady who said something like “Police service….” I then started talking “Yes yes, I am on a dual-” but the other operator then butted in and started stating a load of facts and numbers or something like that. Anyway, after about 25 seconds I finally got to speak to this other lady and say what was going on.
This got me wondering, if I was being attacked, and I phoned 999 and said “help me help me”, would they just continue saying “what service do you require”, and then put me on hold whilst they talk numbers to each other during their inter-connection thing?? Anyone know? It was actually pretty shocking, I wasnt very happy and I let the lady know it.
By: MINIDOH - 17th May 2005 at 17:32
I was lucky then, I got passed to a control centre near me because I wasn’t sure of the name of the road I was on, and the lady I was speaking to said “oh I know the one, does it have a parking bay near on either side near the end of it”. I think it was a Wellington control centre.
By: Nermal - 17th May 2005 at 11:37
Shall we trust that they will come back to you with a warning for talking on a mobile phone whilst driving, which is, of course, illegal? It has happened: I covered a story involving a woman who saw a knife-fight and called the police; when they asked where she was she said that she was driving away because she felt unsafe, they said that it was against the law and that someone would speak to her. She was apparently given a warning.
But there are a lot of people who enjoy ringing up and giving false information – saying that there is a body in a field or that a house is on fire. The operator passes your number over so that they can come back and confirm with you about how you can to see what you report, or prosecute you for passing false information.
Another thing to remember is that you will almost never be passed to a control centre local to you – I have reported car accidents and fallen trees, etc, to Newcastle, Birmingham, and Devon and Cornwall police control centres – so you cannot rely on local knowledge. – Nermal
By: Dave Homewood - 17th May 2005 at 11:09
You’re lucky you got any response compared with here in NZ. We used to have a top notch emergency service, but of course Governments have meddled and cuts were made. Now the entire country (bigger in area than Britain) relies on just three emergency call centres, who usually get it wrong if they do anything at all.
There is a HUGE unquiry going on at the moment due to successive failures in the system this year. It began when a nice young lady called Iraena Asher was at a party at a beech – she was getting hassled by some guy, was alone, it was dark, she didn’t know the area and felt in real danger. She rang the cops who fobbed her off. She rang again very distrssed and the cops said to walk to the nearest service station and they’ll send a patrol. There is no service station at Piha beach, and instead of a patrol car, they rang a taxi. They gave the wrong address to the taxi despatcher, who was just a kid, and it was sent to the wrong side of Auckland. Iraena Asher has never been heard of since.
This became a furore and escalated when a bloke had his rural home invaded, and called 111, he was beaten to a pulp and no police were sent. He barely survived it, but is now kicking up stink.
A little after that, in nearby Hamilton city, in the middle of a night a car smashed through this lady’s fence and hit her house. The drunken driver got out and tried to get into her house, and was banging and shouting blue murder. He was a stranger and she and her friend panicked so they called the emergency services. Again, nothing was sent. they rang again, and were abused. Finally half an hour later when a cop turned up, the offender had already got back into his 4WD and driven off drunk and angry. Hopeless.
The enquiry has found massive lglearing problems from bad training to the fact that a huge percentage of calls are simply ignored, not even answered. While others are ‘logged’ and ignored till a second call comes. It is dreadful.
The Federated Farmers Union announced to farmers the other day, if anything happens, don’t bother ringing the cops, ring your neighbours as they will be the only ones who come.
The Government are so smug they think and say nothing is wrong, and yet it so obviously is. The minister of Police, George Hawkins, is the most incompetent MP I have ever seen or heard. He is actually worse than Piers from ‘The New Statesman’ (the Rik Mayall political comedy) when he’s interviewed as far as being lilly livered and a suck up to the leader. Helen Clark always rips into the media saying they’re bullying Hawkins because he’s disabled after a stroke. Bullshine!! He never, ever gives a straight answer and never seems to actually know an answer if it was presented on a plate. I never knew he was disabled at all – he’s fully abled as far as his job would require him, and has but a lisp – so the stoke can’t have been much of one. I think it definately affected his brain though. He trots out a well-trodden and imboscilic party line to keep the undead lady at the top happy, but he hasn’t a clue about policing and emergency services – this is plain to everyone. Meanwhile there is less and less confidence in the police, and more and more enquiries.
He also bloats on about there being less reported crime each year and it being at it’s lowest since the 1960’s – yet he fails to realise that if the 111 service is ignoring calls, then reported crime goes unreported. Errghh!!
We are in much the same position as the UK was a few weeks ago – a corrupt and incompetent Government, with a corrupt and equally incompetent, less powerful opposition waiting in the wings. Very few of our MP’s have a clue. I’m with Billy Connolly on his solution – the application form when you decide to go into politics should have but one question: “Do you want to be a politician?” If they tick yes, F*CK OFF!
By: PilotDKH - 17th May 2005 at 10:55
At least there is something to learn from this.We now know to just ask for the police everytime,if there’s an emergency.
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May 16, 2005 at 9:28 pm