Why govt neglect to re-activate 991 police toll free number

Why govt neglect to re-activate 991 police toll free number

We have been alerting the nation for over 4 years now that the existence of a toll free number for police and other emergency services is an initial and basic requirement if any administration wishes to have a real record on law enforcement and service to its people.

First and foremost, all functional countries have working emergency numbers as a basic requirement. With a 24/7 recorded toll free number, the nation will know just how many people call for police support and never get it.

We are also aware that the govt may be afraid of being exposed for failure to timely respond to emergencies, but better to start somewhere and work on the system over time as emergency services are a bedrock of any functional economy.

The nation will allocate more funds to ensure police can respond to citizens calls 24/7, especially the night when thieves mostly strike and people are left hapless as no support can arrive.

Even the problem of carders which some people thought was synonymous with the previous PF government and now rife in the current UPND government all mushroom and grow due to lack of ability by police to respond in good time to emergency calls for law enforcement. Even today, ruling party carders are harrassing Innocent citizens on the road, in residential street and in compounds.

Today, people are even making fun of the police appeal for information on police calls for the public to share information to claim a reward of K2 million because some direct numbers that are used and answered by police not trained on taking information of sensitive nature.

We doubt if these numbers are even recorded for independent future audits for quality and follow through. These are the same challenges that were faced when Pamela Chisumpa and the other 12 girls were abducted. People had been calling various police numbers such that it was impossible to verify who actually found the girls with police claiming that they cracked the case. Why should we surely ignore all these things and yet expect the police service to improve????

This is one of the reasons why we ask if we are really serious in combating crime and putting down infrastructure and technology that can lead to more efficient policing in this modern era.

Below are some of the article we have written in the past on this matter. We even went further to speak to mobile network providers, some of whom confirmed that they are able to provide these toll free services as part of their corporate social responsibility as long as govt through the ministry of internal security puts up a serious national call centre.

These are basic requirements that need to be set up and people will be able to give tips, call for emergency help as well as improve the levels of law enforcement in the country.

However, we are also not naive to think that some interests groups want the status quo to continue, some for private interests and others for political interests. For Gods sake, set up a national police call centre whose costs can be as little as a few thousands of dollars and get the toll free numbers working.- Zambian Business Times