Prank calls just not funny: Police

THE City Police receive an average of 50 prank calls per day on their toll-free line, and over weekends the number increases even further.

The toll-free emergency number (302 302) was launched last year so that everyone can have access to the Police, even if they do not have money. This was aimed at improving community policing and supporting the fight against crime.But some people, especially children, have been misusing the number.Female officers say they are often subjected to obscene phone calls.”It is very frustrating when the phone rings … you expect a caller who needs help, but instead you get sworn at and filthy sexual suggestions are made,” says a woman officer who was on duty this weekend.Even worse are the call-outs to non-existent emergencies.Callers ask for help with an accident, domestic disturbances or violent crime and when the Police vehicles and officers arrive at the given address, there is no sign of any disturbance or accident.It has also happens that the Police are called out to a specific part of the city, while numerous petty crimes were committed around the same time in another area, suggesting that the caller deliberately misled the Police to create a diversion.Prank callers are playing a dangerous game, however.It is a crime to waste Police resources with hoax calls, and the culprits can, and do, get caught.All the numbers from which calls are made to the City Police’s toll-free number are recorded.Telecom can then trace the numbers and lead the Police to where the calls were made from.Many children who make prank calls use public phones, thinking that they can get away with it.Plainclothes Police officers have, however, been posted at public phones from where prank calls are received.One such phone was the one at the Hakahana Service Station in Katutura.Two youngsters – aged seven and 11 years old – were caught red-handed making a prank call to the toll-free number from there.According to the Police, the two of them had made calls for the past week.When asked what his last call was about, the 11 year old said he was bored and phoned the number and said: “My grandmother is having sex with a cockroach and the Police must come and help.””The toll-free number was introduced so that we can do our work more efficiently and protect the community, instead it gets abused and the lines kept busy with prank calls while there might be a real emergency and the caller cannot get through,” said Assistant Superintendent Siegfried Geiseb of the City Police.This was aimed at improving community policing and supporting the fight against crime.But some people, especially children, have been misusing the number.Female officers say they are often subjected to obscene phone calls.”It is very frustrating when the phone rings … you expect a caller who needs help, but instead you get sworn at and filthy sexual suggestions are made,” says a woman officer who was on duty this weekend.Even worse are the call-outs to non-existent emergencies.Callers ask for help with an accident, domestic disturbances or violent crime and when the Police vehicles and officers arrive at the given address, there is no sign of any disturbance or accident.It has also happens that the Police are called out to a specific part of the city, while numerous petty crimes were committed around the same time in another area, suggesting that the caller deliberately misled the Police to create a diversion.Prank callers are playing a dangerous game, however.It is a crime to waste Police resources with hoax calls, and the culprits can, and do, get caught.All the numbers from which calls are made to the City Police’s toll-free number are recorded.Telecom can then trace the numbers and lead the Police to where the calls were made from.Many children who make prank calls use public phones, thinking that they can get away with it.Plainclothes Police officers have, however, been posted at public phones from where prank calls are received.One such phone was the one at the Hakahana Service Station in Katutura.Two youngsters – aged seven and 11 years old – were caught red-handed making a prank call to the toll-free number from there.According to the Police, the two of them had made calls for the past week.When asked what his last call was about, the 11 year old said he was bored and phoned the number and said: “My grandmother is having sex with a cockroach and the Police must come and help.””The toll-free number was introduced so that we can do our work more efficiently and protect the community, instead it gets abused and the lines kept busy with prank calls while there might be a real emergency and the caller cannot get through,” said Assistant Superintendent Siegfried Geiseb of the City Police.