Gov't to track, punish 119 pranksters

National Security Minister Robert Montague says technology will be utilised to track and then punish persons who continue to make prank calls to the 119 police emergency number.

Delivering remarks at a graduation ceremony held recently at the National Police College in St Catherine, Montague said he was awaiting delivery of the “the bits of equipment and the software”.

He said the equipment will prevent people from “tying up the Government’s resources”.

The national security minister said out of the 32,000 calls made daily to the emergency number, 22,000 of those are made by persons intent on creating mischief.

These prank calls, he noted, clog the system, delaying attention to persons with emergencies.

“When people have genuine needs they cannot get through, and then you have this backlog of people waiting and hoping. The prank callers are tying up the system and wasting resources,” he lamented.

He is appealing to the pranksters to desist from “playing with the emergency services”.