Silent 999 Calls: Campaign to Debunk Myths

[6Foot2]

Link: Silent 999 calls: Campaign to debunk myths [bBC News]

 

 

A campaign aims to raise awareness of a method of alerting police if you are in imminent danger but need to keep quiet.

 

The Silent Solution system, which prompts 999 callers to press 55 on mobiles to signify they are unable to talk, has been in operation since 2002.

 

But the instruction is only detected in about 50 of 5,000 calls a day pushed through the automated system.

 

The police watchdog says those unaware of the method could be assumed to be accidental or hoax callers and cut off.

 

The Independent Office for Police Conduct is launching a poster campaign, backed by a how-to guide, aimed at "debunking the myth" that a silent 999 call alone will automatically bring help...

[mikeprice]

Great system - but if has been in operation since 2002 - how come I have never heard of it (until now - obviously)?

[elsiegee40]

It’s been publicised on Social Media for some time now. It crops up on Facebook fairly regularly... although the method is often incorrect and the MythBuster sites have been correcting it.

[Jamman960]

One of our students made a hoax, silent call recently, we've got our system setup to page the bursar into the call and record any emergency calls. The operator instructed the caller to tap, cough or make a noise about 20 seconds into the call and refused to release the line until someone spoke. at around 45 seconds they started passing the call on to the local police and gave them the name of the caller & location as per the phone company records - we were included in that call. Our bursar managed to get to the phone and told them it was a hoax by about 90 seconds.

 

There was plenty of background noise on the call as it was near our after school club, they were very persistent in trying to get a response.