LA Assignment - Nuisance callers dial-up a 999 logjam

(Attn : Ms Gordon)

I am blogging about a news article which can be found in Part B, page B5 of The Straits Time on 23^th February 2009. My purpose of posting this is to let you be aware that such a thing is happening is Singapore and that you will help to resolve this problem, besides merely doing it as an assignment.

This article is an event narrative story, which means that there is a problem to be solved in a country, the Earth, etc. This can be seen from the article which is mainly about how there are many nuisance callers who dial up 999, resulting a logjam. This story narrates how Staff Seargant Norlaila Yunos, aged 33, received calls that was either anonymous or unimportant complaints and was not to be made to the police stations, as the police 999 line is meant only for police-related emergencies. For example, situations where life or property is at risk.

In my opinion, if people continue doing this just for fun or treat it as a phone directory or a compliant bureau, those who are really is need for police help will take a longer time to get through. As a result, the police might be too late to prevent anything undesirable to happen. According to the article, we should only dial the line when there is a crime in progress, or a further crime may happen. Besides that, when someone is badly injured or is in peril, or if you detect suspicious characters, incidents, etc., you could also call the 999 line to make a report. The line is not meant for non-urgent situations such as noisy neighbours or sighting of stray animals. These calls should be made to the neighbourhood police centres or relevant agencies instead.

I suggest that whenever the police receive a call from a prankster, they could blacklist it and refuse to answer it the next time they called. Furthermore, they could take actions against them by fining the pranksters as they are able to trace them. The citizens also plays an important role. They should be more considerate towards other people by not abusing the line.

That's all I will share with you about this article. You can visit http://www.straitstimes.com/ to view this article. You can post your views or opinions or anything about this article in the comment box. Thank you!