Instant access to police encourages prank calls

30-sec wait before getting through to control room cops gone, pranksters don't think twice in pursuit of cheap thrills

30-sec wait before getting through to control room cops gone, pranksters don't think twice in pursuit of cheap thrills

To ensure speedy response when people dial 100, Police Commissioner Meeran Chadha Borwankar did away with the recorded voice instructions that used to last 30 seconds before a constable in the police control room took the call. Now it turns out the move has resulted in a sharp increase in prank calls.


FRUSTRATING: The city police control room gets 8,000 calls every day,
and insiders say 70 per cent of these are prank calls.

The 30-second wait may have been frustrating for a genuine caller seeking police help, but it also discouraged pranksters. After the recorded voice was removed, the number of calls routed to the police control room daily grew from 5,000 to 8,000.

Abusive and prank calls make up 70 per cent of the total calls, say police sources. Constables on control room duty are already under a lot of stress because of the large volume of calls, and now the rise in prank calls has taken their frustration to a new high.

"After the 30-second recorded voice instructions were removed a month ago, 8,000 calls are being received everyday at the police control room. But of the total, around 70 per cent calls are blank calls, or abusive or obscene in nature," said a source. "To keep a check on such calls, action against the pranksters has been intensified. In the past few months, eight people have been arrested in such cases under Section 186 of the Indian Penal Code."

The source added that most of the calls are made from rural areas."Just because the 100 number is toll-free, people call for cheap thrills. If any lady constable answers the call the person on the other side starts vulgar conversation," said the source.

Asked about the prank calls, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Control Room) M G Thombare said, "After news of the arrest of people making prank calls was published, the number of such calls dropped considerably. We are taking strict action against such pranksters as we can now easily identify them using the GIS technology."

Action against prank callers

Computerised control room

THE computerised control room of the city police was inaugurated on November 22, 2009. It has 10 dedicated lines for all calls made to the toll-free number 100. Ten constables are posted at any given time in the control room to receive these calls.

> Shankar Trimbak Kadam, a resident of Chinchwad, was arrested on Tuesday on charges of misleading the police after he made a prank call to the police in an inebriated condition. Provisions of the Information Technology Act have also been slapped against him and can result in severe punishment.
Kadam had allegedly called the police control room on Monday saying he had been kidnapped from Hinjewadi by some unknown persons. This call had thrown the entire police machinery in a tizzy, as rescue efforts were immediately launched by the police.
> Bhiva Bhise (24), a resident of Daund, made 27 threat calls to the control room before the police nabbed him on Saturday. Bhise reportedly said he had made the calls just because the phone number of the control room was toll-free.
> Dhanraj Bandghar, a youth from Solapur, was nabbed by the police after he threatened to blow up Baramati city on Saturday. Baramati is the bastion of Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar. Bandghar reportedly said he had made the prank call only to trouble the police.