The Queensland Police Service (QPS) has launched a new campaign aimed at reducing non-urgent calls to the Triple Zero number.
Assistant Police Commissioner Ben Marcus said that from September 2020 to last August only 13.67 per cent of calls made to Triple Zero were classified as urgent or very urgent, with the majority able to be dealt with through QPS’s non-urgent reporting service, Policelink.
“The campaign aims to raise awareness of the QPS’s other reporting avenues, encouraging the public to pause and think before dialling Triple Zero,” Assistant Commissioner Marcus said.
“Our Police Communication Centres across the State take more than 726,000 calls each year and it was alarming to us that more than 400,000 of those could be dealt with through other, more effective reporting avenues.”
He said the Policelink service had been established more than 10 years ago, providing both phone and online reporting that was effective, often offering a more streamlined service for those who were calling with a non-urgent inquiry such as lost or stolen property.
“We hope that this campaign will further increase our capacity to respond to life- threatening emergencies,” Assistant Commissioner Marcus said.
Acting Superintendent for the QPS, Scott MacQueen said the campaign was about showing people the best way to contact police for non-urgent matters.
“Everyone knows that Triple Zero is there in a life-threatening emergency, but you may be impacted by crime in your day-to-day life and it’s important to know that there are other ways this can be reported,” Acting Superintendent MacQueen said.
“What we’re asking is simple: Next time you’re thinking of making a report, if there’s no imminent danger, just pause, think and search Policelink,” he said.