Riviera Maya, Q.R. — Over one million reports considered inappropriate were called in to Quintana Roo Emergency 9-1-1 services during 2023. Julio César Gómez Torres, the Secretary of Citizen Security, says the most often calls made were insults and/or obscene.
Gómez Torres says these types of calls generate unnecessary expenses for the state in terms of technology and human resources. He reported that during 2023, more than 1.1 million inappropriate calls were made to the emergency line.
In terms of what was considered ‘inappropriate’, he detailed adults calling the line to hurl insults and make obscene comments topped the list. However, prank calls were not far behind the list of inappropriate reports.
Other non-emergency calls made to the emergency 9-1-1 number included incomplete calls, silent calls (no response) and call transfers, people looking for a city department.
He says such calls puts the timely response to real emergencies at risk and generates unnecessary expenses in terms of economic, human, technological, infrastructure and materials.
He also says those types of calls increase stress for operators and dispatchers. For this reason, Gómez Torres is urging citizens to use the emergency number responsibly.
“We remind citizens that the emergency number 9-1-1 and the anonymous complaint number 089 should not be used in joke situations. Let us remember that these numbers exist to attend to emergencies that often help save lives or prevent disasters for citizens.
“Any one of us could be that citizen who is in an emergency situation and we would like the emergency system to be available when we need it,” he said.
Gómez Torres reported that in July of 2023, the emergency line recorded the highest number of inappropriate calls. During that month, 133,061 non-emergency calls were made to the 9-1-1 line.
