Muscat: Half of the calls made to the Royal Oman Police (ROP) emergency telephone number (9999) are nuisance calls, according to a press release issued by the police Saturday.
During the first six months of this year 1,003,100 calls were made to 9999. "More than 50 per cent of these calls were "nuisance calls", mostly involving children, who asked frivolous questions and which resulted in avoidable wastage of time," said Nasser Bin Saif Al Rashidi, Operations Centre officer.
He urged residents to educate their children about the importance of the emergency telephone number which should not be misused to call the police, unless it is a must.
Al Rashidi reckons that the reason for this irresponsible behaviour was the lack of family control over children. "The family plays a key role in educating their children, and that they should be told not to misuse the phone facility."
He added that nuisance calls are an impediment to work at the Operations Centre. "Their job is to respond quickly in case of an important call, especially during the holidays."
