Now surely they are having a laugh

[davieG]

Anyone on here heard about the new emergency telephone number of 101.

Apparently this is being introduced to enable the reporting of minor crime such as drug taking and vandalism, maybe a nice idea in prinicple but the public now have to be the judges of what is minor.

For example:

If you see a someone vandalising a school I guess you could argue ring 101, but what if it's a gang of people when does that if ever become sufficiently serious to warrant a 999 call, 2 people, 4, 8 10, 15 who knows?

Would one person trying to set fire to the building be a 101 or a 999.

I personally find the whole thing ludicrous but that's not all there's a punch line to this laughable situation, if you dial 101 you have to pay for the privilege of making this call.

[Bert]

I think it's good because it's only people that are stupid enough to ring up for silly things like "my cat is stuck up in the tree" that have enforced this number. Waste of money really but i guess it'll take some pressure of real emergencys.

What's the betting this nu,mber hardly gets used?

[Head Honcho]

I did chuckle when this was on the news earlier, 10p to report a crime!

It's all down to the idiots who ring 999 to ask for directions or to ask if they've missed the last train!

[davieG]

I did chuckle when this was on the news earlier, 10p to report a crime!

It's all down to the idiots who ring 999 to ask for directions or to ask if they've missed the last train!

But it wont stop any of that, if you ask me it's just another tax, how long before we get used to the idea of using and paying for 101 that they start charging not only 25p a call but also 10p for 999.

What happens if someone rings 999 to report a crime that's considered minor will they be asked to ring back on 101?

Once again it's the easy option, some people behave like arse'oles and the rest of us have to pay the price.

What price even less crime being reported?

[Rincewind]

I think what they are hoping for is that most people will know the difference between a serious crime (an armed bank robbery( and a non-serious crime ( a dog crapping on some body's lawn) but we all know this is a ridiculous assumption and the two numbers will have wrong reporting on both lines. What's a person going to do if they cannot get through on the 99 or 101 number? The idea is good because it will make sure serious incidents are not by-passed by a cat stuck up the tree or an old women locking herself out of her house so lets hope it's workable. I'm not sure about the charge though.

[Benji]

I think the idea behind it is sound, it should free up the lines for the most serious of emergiencies. However, having to pay? why will people want to report someone being harrarrssed if they are going to end up paying like they had just entered a channel 5 competition. I can see the first few months or longer leaving some real confusion with people as to which number their incident will involve.

Plus there will still be the idiots who find pranking the emergency number gives them 'a kick' so it wont stop the ringing 999.

[Dr The Singh]

In theory a great idea, but at 10p a pop, most morons will still ring 999!!!!

[Guest]

Stupid idea. Instead of creating a new number, why not fine people who make crank or stupid calls? They can trace numbers, even if you think you've hidden it.

[Scarby]

The police control centre grade calls anyway! that is why when you phone the police for I.E having a car stolen/or someone broke in to your chances yes thes are very upsetting for you but there will be more urgent calls to attent to like a stabbing/rape etc.

This new caller thing wont work and even if it does it wont make any difference to the public calling the police