A series of false calls to 999 have sparked the emergency services to ask parents not to let their children play with old phones.
The Emergency Services Joint Control Room has reminded the public that a phone doesn’t need a sim card in to call the emergency services.
Although this is a great feature, the ESJCR have encountered numerous problems due to this.
Over the last few days the emergency services have repeatedly received many 999 calls from the same device but say it is “obvious that it’s a child playing with the phone”.
Kids And Old Phones
The control room says that although the phones or tablets have no sim, children sometimes end up dialling 999 and speaking to the control room by accident.
It says that “whilst this may well be accidental, there is no telephone number associated with the call so it can cause some big issues in the Control Room”.
This can take up much needed emergency lines and also take away a controller from genuine emergencies.
The calls have caused the control room problems by spending time on answering in excess of fifty accidental 999 calls resulting in controllers having delays in answering other calls or radio messages.
It asks that people don’t give a young child an old mobile phone to play with, if you do give them an old phone to play with then please supervise your child.
If you become aware that your child has accidentally dialled 999 then please speak to the control room and let them know that everything is ok.
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