Abu Dhabi: An elderly man who asked police to stop a sandstorm was among the more ridiculous of the 963,000 calls made last year to the Abu Dhabi police control room.

The largest portion of notifications were crime-related, while traffic reports came in second at 235,914. Residents made a further 274,807 calls on an assortment of issues.

Officers said reports are placed into three categories: ‘Very important’, ‘Important’ and ‘Normal’ to indicate the urgency with which authorities should respond to the calls.

Categorically important reports include fires with injuries, important ones include traffic congestions while a normal status applies to small incidents without injuries.

Different members of the ADP including patrols, ambulances, rescue teams, the Air Wing, quick intervention teams, Sa’aed and the Civil Defence among others, all coordinate with one another through the Operations Room, which has reduced the response time for reports.

While police officials encouraged residents to report any suspicions of crime or other complaints, they also urged parents to inform their children of the right circumstances to call police, in order to avoid nuisance calls.

Instructions provided on the Abu Dhabi Police website state that anyone making an emergency call must remain calm when giving information about their name and location of the crime.

“Leaving the scene leads to obstruction of the work and also lost features of the crime,” the Abu Dhabi Police website added.

Residents are only allowed to perform Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) on victims of drowning ahead of the arrival of paramedics at the scene.

The website also states that anyone who flees the scene or makes a false statements with the police could face legal action.

Earlier, a statement issued by the police said: “The Central Operations Room at Abu Dhabi Police GHQ handled three ‘peculiar’ cases, after receiving a number of calls via the emergency services line (999). In the first case, an old man asked the police to stop the dust-laden winds so that he could leave his house; the second involved a person reporting an altercation in an Asian language after requesting the English language option; and the third case involved a lady who had strayed from her home, but was found standing right behind it.”

However, all three cases were given special attention and were finally resolved.