Police have added another emergency hotline, "1599", as an option for people calling for help, following complaints that the existing 191 hotline is always busy.
An officer at the Traffic Police Division’s 191 call centre demonstrates how he handles calls made to the police hotline. Prompted by growing criticism over alleged inefficiency of the hotline service, the Royal Thai Police Office is considering an overhaul of the service. PORNPROM SATRABHAYA
Pol Gen Ruengsak Jarit-ek, deputy national police chief, said yesterday the Royal Thai Police added the new hotline to ensure faster responses to emergencies.
Police were now also required to arrive at locations of emergencies in Bangkok within five minutes of receiving a phone call, said Pol Gen Ruengsak. The number of staff at the 191 hotline operation centre has also been increased to handle 60 calls at a time.
"In Bangkok, peak times for the 191 hotline centre are between 6pm and 8pm, when 1,600-2,000 calls are made to the centre, but officers could handle only 40 calls at a time during that period. So, 20 more lines have been added.
"The RTPO will also install more CCTV cameras in another 861 risk areas. The cameras will be linked to the Traffic Police Division's control centre and street lighting will be installed in areas at risk of crime," said Pol Gen Ruengsak.
Pol Maj Gen Panurat Lakboon, who is in charge of the 191 unit, said some 230,000 calls were made to the 191 hotline last month. About 54% of the calls were hoaxes.
He has instructed police to answer all calls made to the hotline. Most hoax callers were found to be children, he said. Officers could only warn them not to do it again. Adults who made hoax calls were fined 500 baht each, he said.
Earlier, an amateur photographer who found the body of a Swedish man hanged in an abandoned building claimed he could not reach the 191 hotline service.
Last week, Nattawat Wasathian, 33, said he had to take to the Pantip webboard to raise the alarm after he failed to get any help from the police.
The man said he tried calling 191 several times to alert the authorities, but the line was always busy.
He found the body on one of the top floors of the derelict, unfinished Unique Tower on Sathon Road.