Hoax calls have become a major concern for the Mumbai police as they end up wasting the time and manpower of the police department. As per data, the department received 18 hoax calls in 2021 and 15 in 2022. However, in the first two months of 2023, the police have already received eight such calls.
Police consider these calls as credible threats until declared a hoax. After receiving such calls, a Standard Operating Procedure is followed, as per which a team of local police reach the spot and vacate it while the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) searches the location. The information is declared a hoax call if nothing is found, according to a report in The Indian Express.
Talking about this, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Lakhmi Gautam said, “Every call regarding any threat to the control room is treated as a genuine call and all procedures are followed to bring it to its logical conclusion.”
An IPS officer mentioned that with the increasing number of hoax calls, there may be doubts in minds of the police and the public when a genuine threat call is received.
The IE report said that most hoax callers are under the influence of some intoxicant or are mentally unstable. These calls are made with the intention of troubling the police for not meeting their expectations or to take revenge on someone.
In most cases, the police investigate and arrest the hoax caller, but the case becomes complicated if the caller is suffering from a mental health condition. In the recent past, a person used to frequently call and only talk to women cops in the control room in an obscene manner. The police, after arresting the person, learnt that the person had autism.
Throwing light on the mentality of hoax callers, Mumbai-based clinical psychologist Sonali Gupta said, “With mobile phones and WhatsApp easily available, it becomes much easier for people to act out on their impulses of feeling slighted. By making these calls, it would also give them a false sense of being in control of the situation.”