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Speaker 1: Well, almost every day on the show we do hear

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Speaker 1: that callers are waiting for significant lengths of time on

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Speaker 1: the phone to emergency services. Now, last time we caught

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Speaker 1: up with the police, they said that the rise of

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Speaker 1: mobile phones is one factor with multiple people reporting the

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Speaker 1: same incident, but something else is going on as well,

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Speaker 1: and that is pointless non emergency calls. Now, take a

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Speaker 1: bit of a listen to one example of some of

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Speaker 1: these time wasters, where do you need police?

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Speaker 2: A bit of an embarrassing one. I've kind of locked

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Speaker 2: myself out of my house.

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Speaker 1: Ah, yes, I could see how.

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Speaker 2: Essentially I'm currently My parents are currently they don't get

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Speaker 2: back till later today, but I'm babies in the house

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Speaker 2: and I've grabbed the wrong spare key to actually get

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Speaker 2: back inside. I'm currently stranded outside. Well, I don't know

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Speaker 2: that the police are going to be able to help

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Speaker 2: you with breaking in houses are sort of not not

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Speaker 2: what we do.

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Speaker 1: It's quite unbelievable. I mean, I'm laughing because I can't

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Speaker 1: believe somebody would actually call Triple zero for that. But

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Speaker 1: here to tell us more about what is going on

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Speaker 1: is Senior Sergeant Craig Dunlop. Good morning, to you, Craig.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, Katie. How are you today?

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Speaker 1: Not too bad, Craig. How many of these non emergency

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Speaker 1: calls is the communications center receiving.

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Speaker 3: Look, we receive numerous calls every day in relation to

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Speaker 3: petty issues that people ring up for holding our lines up.

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Speaker 3: I mean, for example, I mean just yesterday, we had

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Speaker 3: somebody give us a ring asking for a plumber because

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Speaker 3: they had a water leak. And we also had another

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Speaker 3: one because I lost their password to their phone. You know,

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Speaker 3: So these type of calls are they are an impostant

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Speaker 3: on us to try and make sure the people who

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Speaker 3: ring through are ringing correctly.

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Speaker 1: Mate. The mind boggles. I cannot believe that somebody would

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Speaker 1: actually call the police for that, Like, I just find

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Speaker 1: it unbelievable.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, it's obviously an education thing that we need

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Speaker 3: to get out there that for people to use triple O.

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Speaker 3: We want them to ring when they're when they when

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Speaker 3: someone seriously injured, or they need urgent medical help, or

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Speaker 3: or their life or properties under threat, and or they've

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Speaker 3: just witnessed a serious crime or or an accident. You know,

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Speaker 3: we want them to ring for that so we can

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Speaker 3: get police there or other emergency service as soon as

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Speaker 3: we possibly can. But people ringing up asking further ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: It wastes our time to be able to get emergency

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Speaker 3: responders to those locations.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I've no doubt that it does. I mean we

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Speaker 1: just heard one of those calls. Can you give us

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Speaker 1: some other examples.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, we're just even just yesterday we had some

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Speaker 3: people ring up asking they had a dog in the backyard,

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Speaker 3: can we come and remove it. We've asked people who

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Speaker 3: ring up for asking for court dates on triple zero

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Speaker 3: and just little things like that. You know, some of

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Speaker 3: some people are ringing up asking if they can keep

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Speaker 3: baby kangaroos and little little incidences where you know, it's

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Speaker 3: it's just ridiculous in some cases.

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Speaker 1: Mate, how do you teach people common sense? Because I

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Speaker 1: know that you said obviously it is an educative thing,

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Speaker 1: but honestly it's common sense.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it is common sense. I mean, we receive over

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Speaker 3: a thousand phone calls a day to the Just Center here.

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Speaker 3: Majority of those are triple zero calls or one three one,

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Speaker 3: triple four. But what we say is that if it's

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Speaker 3: not an emergency, if it's not happening right now, ring

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Speaker 3: the one three one Triple four. It's a non emergency

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Speaker 3: line for people to be able to provide their information

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Speaker 3: and we will get police out there when needed.

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Speaker 1: And Craig I did mention in the opener that we've

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Speaker 1: certainly had people contact us here at the station and

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Speaker 1: say that at different times and they've tried to call

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Speaker 1: one through one Triple four or tried to call through

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Speaker 1: the triple zero. They've had asive delays. Are we seeing

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Speaker 1: a spike in the number of calls?

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Speaker 3: Look, we're receiving, as I said, over a thousand calls

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Speaker 3: a day, and obviously around the territory there's new towers

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Speaker 3: being put up and therefore more people have access to

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Speaker 3: mobile coverage. So with that, obviously we do receive more calls,

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Speaker 3: and we here we obviously answer the calls as quick

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Speaker 3: as we possibly can. In some instances there are weights,

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Speaker 3: and the weights are caused by people ringing the wrong

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Speaker 3: lines and so forth. We have our standard number of

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Speaker 3: call takers here and they do a fantastic job in

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Speaker 3: answering the calls and getting the information that is required

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Speaker 3: so we can get our emergency services up to the

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Speaker 3: locations that is required. But the one three one, I

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Speaker 3: mean trible four is the non urgent number that we

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Speaker 3: want these people to call, and then they won't be

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Speaker 3: holding up the urgent requests of people who are suffering

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Speaker 3: or need help.

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Speaker 1: Craig, why do you reckon that we are seeing sort

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Speaker 1: of an increase in some of the calls that we

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Speaker 1: get to triple zero and one three one, triple four.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I know that these time wasters are obviously

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Speaker 1: part of it, but why do you reckon we are

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Speaker 1: sort of seeing increases.

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Speaker 3: Look, I think it's just one of those things that

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Speaker 3: people find it easier to ring triple o and they

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Speaker 3: can't remember the one three, one, triple four non urgent number.

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Speaker 3: And that's probably that half the reason is most people

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Speaker 3: know it's easy to ring triple zero, not having an

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Speaker 3: understanding of the consequences of what's happening when they're ringing

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Speaker 3: that number. For trivial matters, it does hold up, as

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Speaker 3: I said earlier, it holds up people that need urgent response.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so what is your message to the community this morning, Craig.

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Speaker 1: I know that you know it must be incredibly frustrating

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Speaker 1: for you guys. It is.

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Speaker 3: Look, all we want the public to know is that

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Speaker 3: if they're going to ring triple zero. Make sure it's

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Speaker 3: for someone who's seriously injured or is in need of

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Speaker 3: urgent medical attention. It is where life or property is

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Speaker 3: being threatened. And also if you've actually witnessed a serious

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Speaker 3: in or a crime. That's They're the three main reasons

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Speaker 3: we want people to ring triple oh. Everything else, we

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Speaker 3: recommend that you ring one three one triple four. If

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Speaker 3: there is a small weight, be patient. We will answer

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Speaker 3: the phone. With all triple O calls, they all go

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Speaker 3: through Telstra and they go through and they're asked what

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Speaker 3: do they require, police, ambulance or fire and then they'll

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Speaker 3: be switched through to the relevant area. So if it's

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Speaker 3: for an emergency, obviously triple zero, but anything else that's

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Speaker 3: been delayed. For example, so if you come back after

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Speaker 3: three or four hours you've been away and someone's broken

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Speaker 3: into your house, unfortunately, that is a one to three

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Speaker 3: one triple four unless the offenders are on the site.

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Speaker 3: I would then recommend to ring triple zero. But if

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Speaker 3: it's an historical matter, one three one.

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Speaker 1: Triple four is the word that is exactly what I

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Speaker 1: was going to ask you about, actually, Craig, was you know,

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Speaker 1: if there is a home break in. I mean, if

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Speaker 1: there's somebody at your house right in that moment, definitely

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Speaker 1: called triple zero.

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Speaker 3: Correct, that's correct.

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Speaker 1: But if it's if it's a sorry you go, if

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Speaker 1: you get home after they've been broken into.

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Speaker 3: So if it has been broken into, you've been out

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Speaker 3: for days or you know, even for three or four hours,

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Speaker 3: and you come home and your house has been broken into,

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Speaker 3: we want to know about it. We want you to

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Speaker 3: report it. We request that you report it through the

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Speaker 3: one three, one trip or four.

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Speaker 1: Well. Craig Dunlop, Senior sergent with the Emergency the Joint

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Speaker 1: Emergency Services Communications Center. I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Let's hope that you know, the more that we talk

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Speaker 1: about these kinds of situations, well, the less silly calls

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Speaker 1: and time waste, as you guys guess hope.

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Speaker 3: So, Katie, thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. I appreciate your time,