Nuisance callers dial up a 999 logjam

Pranksters swamp police hotline while others treat it as phone directory or compliant bureau

This article found in strait times 23/2/09 in home section pgB5, there was this article featuring about People prank calling the Police hotline and treat it as a non-emergency line for complains and things other than emergencies which really need the police help. Let me give you a example. The newspaper article mention about a neighbour who complains about his neighbour being very noisy by playing loud music that apparently disturbs the caller. This is seriously unacceptable. This incident should be made known to the town council or the neighbourhood police to solve this problem and should not call the emergency hotline.

This story is particularly NOT a millieu story. A millieu story is a story which happens in the world , whether is the real world or just a invented one. It includes not just the physical world but everything else. I think the reason for it not to become a millieu story is that although it happens in the real world, it does not really fit into the criteria of interesting the reader in both characters and environment as it only concerns mainly about the people,

As such, I think it is more of a charater-driven story who tells us about a police officer handling people who dialled the police hotline for the wrong reason and that mainly focus on the police officer named Norilla. This is the reason why I chose this as the character-driven story.

Personally, I feel that the citizens need to be given education on how Police Hotline are used or should I say, how they are used for. I think the first step is to give out phamplets to members of the Public so they can be educated and ther will be no more or lesser trouble with the hotline 999. Next, Police can also have a show or a adversetisements to tell people on how to use the hotline. I believe the Television set is the best form of media for the auties and uncles as they usually would not go out and through the TV programs, they can know better.

Imagine someone is fighting and resulted in Multiple injuries and the fight still continue and cease to stop, wouldn't you be very annoyed if you cannot reach the 999 hotline just because of some inconsiderate people. I hope my post could wake up people from frequently calling the 999 hotline "just for the sake for fun" . Please do not think that it is just only a call, it can result in live and death. Just think about it.