Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Officer in charge of JESCC Senior Sergeant Craig Dunlop explains some of the pointless calls coming through to Triple Zero

Transcript

Officer in charge of JESCC Senior Sergeant Craig Dunlop explains some of the pointless calls coming through to Triple Zero · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, almost every day on the show we do hear
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: that callers are waiting for significant lengths of time on
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the phone to emergency services. Now, last time we caught
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: up with the police, they said that the rise of
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: mobile phones is one factor with multiple people reporting the
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: same incident, but something else is going on as well,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and that is pointless non emergency calls. Now, take a
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: bit of a listen to one example of some of
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: these time wasters, where do you need police?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: A bit of an embarrassing one. I've kind of locked
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: myself out of my house.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Ah, yes, I could see how.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Essentially I'm currently My parents are currently they don't get
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: back till later today, but I'm babies in the house
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: and I've grabbed the wrong spare key to actually get
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: back inside. I'm currently stranded outside. Well, I don't know
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: that the police are going to be able to help
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: you with breaking in houses are sort of not not
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: what we do.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: It's quite unbelievable. I mean, I'm laughing because I can't
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: believe somebody would actually call Triple zero for that. But
• 1:10
  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.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Good morning, Katie. How are you today?
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Not too bad, Craig. How many of these non emergency
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: calls is the communications center receiving.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: Look, we receive numerous calls every day in relation to
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: petty issues that people ring up for holding our lines up.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, for example, I mean just yesterday, we had
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: somebody give us a ring asking for a plumber because
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: they had a water leak. And we also had another
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: one because I lost their password to their phone. You know,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: So these type of calls are they are an impostant
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: on us to try and make sure the people who
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: ring through are ringing correctly.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Mate. The mind boggles. I cannot believe that somebody would
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: actually call the police for that, Like, I just find
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  Speaker 1: it unbelievable.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, it's obviously an education thing that we need
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: to get out there that for people to use triple O.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: We want them to ring when they're when they when
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: someone seriously injured, or they need urgent medical help, or
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: or their life or properties under threat, and or they've
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: just witnessed a serious crime or or an accident. You know,
• 2:26
  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.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: It wastes our time to be able to get emergency
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: responders to those locations.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've no doubt that it does. I mean we
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: just heard one of those calls. Can you give us
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: some other examples.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, we're just even just yesterday we had some
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: people ring up asking they had a dog in the backyard,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: can we come and remove it. We've asked people who
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: ring up for asking for court dates on triple zero
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: and just little things like that. You know, some of
• 3:02
  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
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: it's just ridiculous in some cases.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Mate, how do you teach people common sense? Because I
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: know that you said obviously it is an educative thing,
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  Speaker 1: but honestly it's common sense.
• 3:21
  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,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: triple four. But what we say is that if it's
• 3:34
  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
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: line for people to be able to provide their information
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: and we will get police out there when needed.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: And Craig I did mention in the opener that we've
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: certainly had people contact us here at the station and
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: say that at different times and they've tried to call
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: one through one Triple four or tried to call through
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the triple zero. They've had asive delays. Are we seeing
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: a spike in the number of calls?
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Look, we're receiving, as I said, over a thousand calls
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: a day, and obviously around the territory there's new towers
• 4:12
  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,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: and we here we obviously answer the calls as quick
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: as we possibly can. In some instances there are weights,
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: and the weights are caused by people ringing the wrong
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: lines and so forth. We have our standard number of
• 4:33
  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
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: so we can get our emergency services up to the
• 4:40
  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
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: or need help.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Craig, why do you reckon that we are seeing sort
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: of an increase in some of the calls that we
• 5:00
  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.
• 5:08
  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
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: I said earlier, it holds up people that need urgent response.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so what is your message to the community this morning, Craig.
• 5:38
  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
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: in or a crime. That's They're the three main reasons
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: we want people to ring triple oh. Everything else, we
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: recommend that you ring one three one triple four. If
• 6:08
  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
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: through Telstra and they go through and they're asked what
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: do they require, police, ambulance or fire and then they'll
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: be switched through to the relevant area. So if it's
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: for an emergency, obviously triple zero, but anything else that's
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: been delayed. For example, so if you come back after
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: three or four hours you've been away and someone's broken
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: into your house, unfortunately, that is a one to three
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: one triple four unless the offenders are on the site.
• 6:43
  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,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: if there is a home break in. I mean, if
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: there's somebody at your house right in that moment, definitely
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: called triple zero.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: Correct, that's correct.
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  Speaker 1: But if it's if it's a sorry you go, if
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: you get home after they've been broken into.
• 7:07
  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,
• 7:13
  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.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Well. Craig Dunlop, Senior sergent with the Emergency the Joint
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Emergency Services Communications Center. I really appreciate your time this morning.
• 7:29
  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.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: So, Katie, thank you very much.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Thank you. I appreciate your time,