At a news conference commemorating the day of the 112 emergency number, the Minister of the Interior, National Security and Law Enforcement Byron Camilleri spoke about the importance of using this number with a responsible way because that phone call you know means life or death.
In the year 2020, the 112 control room received a total of 384,793 calls, however there were more than 200,000 calls that were not supposed to be made on the 112 number as they were abusive calls or cases that did not have relevance.
This means that among all the calls made, only 74,380 of them were real emergencies, with a majority (74.3%) being referred to the ambulance service as the emergency was a medical one, while 14.6 % went to the police, and just under 11% went to the Civil Protection. There were circumstances where the help of the Armed Forces of Malta was also requested.
In his message, Minister Camilleri explained how continuous investment is being made in order for law enforcement to respond to calls more effectively. He appealed to the public to use 112 responsibly. “This was a pandemic year when medical and enforcement services were under unprecedented pressure. So let’s pull one rope and be responsible because only then will a circumstance not become an emergency “, concluded the minister.
