Blank and crank calls challenge Bengaluru’s 112 helpline

Operator Ordeal

Bengaluru: The Bengaluru police are facing a peculiar problem. Their 112 helplines, which is set up for emergency response in the city, is receiving a large number of blank calls, part of which are also crank calls.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Command Centre) Kshama Mishra oversees the emergency helpline functions at the Bengaluru police’s Command Centre. BVG India Ltd, an outsourced agency that operates the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS), employs and trains call takers.

ERSS data accessed by DH shows that between January and December 2024, 26.92 lakh calls were made to the 112-emergency helpline in Bengaluru. Of these, around 58% were blank calls and crank calls.

Blank and crank calls

According to senior police officers, the control room receives an average of 8,000-10,000 calls daily, of which the majority remains blank calls.

Blank calls are when calls are made to the 112 emergency helpline but the caller doesn’t speak or respond to the operator. A lot of times, officers say, the 112 calls are triggered mistakenly under the emergency calling mandate by the government on cell phones, which are also classified under the blank calls category.

But the problem remains with crank calls and more importantly, those that threaten the operators, who are mainly trained women, and are vulgar and abusive.

“These are mischief mongers who make crank calls,” says a senior police officer.

“Many of these calls are made solely for the reason that the operators of 112 are women. In some cases, vulgar and intimate remarks were also made towards them: commenting on their voice, asking them out to meet, making remarks about their clothing, etc,” the officer added.

Another officer says that in some cases drunk men call 112 and abuse the operators and make personal and insensitive comments. “There have been instances where crank calls were made 30 times a day from the same number. In some cases, mentally ill people have called the helpline and in other cases, senior citizens, who are alone, call seeking comfort and company.”

‘No lag time’

Multiple senior officers the DH spoke with claimed that blank calls and crank calls don’t affect the functioning of the helpline in case of an emergency mainly because of regular training to handle such incidents and adequate staffing.

“The current capacity is such that whatever calls are received, there is no lag time,” says Bengaluru police commissioner B Dayananda. “The call will automatically get connected to the operator whose line is free.”

Officials at the Command Centre revealed that at most the crank calls go up to a minute or two before the operator disconnects it.

Coping with abuse

Regular training is provided to the operators and since many of them have been on the job for years together, they are well-equipped to cope with crank calls and abusive calls and are provided training and help for good mental health, officers say.

“In cases where personal or vulgar remarks are made towards the women operators, they are trained to immediately respond to the caller that they were calling the emergency helpline and to please cut the call as it was not the way to talk. The operators are also trained not to delay the crank calls and disconnect it politely and immediately the moment they realise it is mischievous,” says Santhosh Kumar, project manager, BVG India Ltd.

“In some cases where extreme vulgar comments are made towards the women operators, the team leader will intervene and handle the situation. The police sub-inspector (PSI) on duty will be informed, too. Since this is a professional service, the operator will politely deny the advances and disconnect the call. This is part of the training,” he added.

Senior officers said that, currently, no tech can identify crank calls made to emergency services and manual intervention is necessary.

Actions taken

The Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) earlier said that crank calls and calls made to disturb the personnel will be blocked for 24 hours.

“Number to be blocked for 24 hours for disturbances made in jest (prank),” the DIPR said.

Commissioner Dayananda said that they have requested the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to bring in the feature where a confirmation prompt appears when the emergency feature is triggered at the press of a button on mobile phones.

“Some telecom operators have done this, while others are in the process of doing it,” he says.

He also said that legal action would be initiated based on the nature of the calls. “Legal action will be taken for abusive calls,” he says. “In extreme cases, the jurisdictional police will be directed to warn and take legal action against the abusers.”

Quote:

These are mischief mongers who make crank calls. Many of these calls are made solely for the reason that the operators of 112 are women. In some cases, vulgar and intimate remarks were also made commenting on their voice asking them out to meet making remarks about their clothing etc.

-Senior police officer