36,080 prank calls received through 917

The Fiji Police Force is concerned with the alarmingly high number of prank received through the Police 917 Emergency lines.

Chief Operations Officer (COO) Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Sakeo Ganivatu said with thousands of calls received daily, its worrying to note that mostly were prank or blank calls.

ACP Sakeo said these calls tie up critical phone lines and delaying first responders’ ability to respond to real emergency calls.

From the 01st to the 25th February this year, a total of 36,080 calls were received through the 917 emergency lines.

The Chief Operations Officer said of this total number only 234 were genuine calls. 19,072 were blank calls and 13,601 were prank calls.

“These sorts of calls delay our service delivery and people who are in desperately in need of our services are being left out because the lines are usually engaged,” said ACP Sakeo.

The Police Chief of Operations said they have identified a few frequent callers and will be investigating them further.

“We are pleading with members of the public not to play around with the 917 Police Emergency Lines as people who need assistance depend on it.”