Police believe three quarters of unanswered calls to the 112 emergency number are made by people who dial it by mistake.
“Figures show that of the total number of unanswered calls, 76 per cent are terminated by the caller within 10 seconds. These are believed to be wrongly or accidentally dialled numbers,” a police spokesman said.
“Notwithstanding, efforts are constantly being made to address the remaining percentage.”
Times of Malta reported last week that nearly one in three callers to the emergency number abandoned their call when operators fail to pick up.
The figure has remained roughly the same for the past several years in reports by the European Commission.
Malta’s call abandon rate is deemed high and “a solution should be found to reduce the failure to reach the 112 operator”, according to the latest report by the Commission.
On average, it took six seconds to answer emergency calls although more than a third were answered after 10 seconds.
Police said experience showed that the number of personnel manning the telephone lines was adequate.
The spokesman indicated that children may be responsible for some of the accidental calls.
The emergency number can be dialled even when the handset is locked
“We would like to emphasise that mobile phones should not be left in the hands of children in particular. Remember that the emergency number can be dialled even when the handset is locked or without a SIM card,” he said.
The police recently produced a video to educate people on why they should not make hoax calls to the emergency number. The video was uploaded on to the force’s Facebook page and You Tube channel.
“Should someone be caught making a hoax call, rest assured that we will not hesitate to prosecute accordingly,” the spokesman said.
The European Commission report found that Malta’s 112 service was particularly weak on receiving data on the location of the caller.
While in the majority of member states, call location is provided to the 112 operator by phone networks in less than 10 seconds, in Malta this information takes from five to 10 minutes to be accessed. This is described as “excessively long”.
“Projects are under way together with the Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security to improve localisation of both fixed-line and mobile calls,” the police spokesman said.
Knowledge of the 112 number among the public was quite high in Malta compared to the EU, with 63 per cent of the population knowing what to dial in an emergency. The EU’s average stood at 58 per cent.