Analysis of abusive 112 emergency calls in Romania

Abstract

The abusive calls subdivision of the non-emergency calls made to the 112-emergency system represent a concern for the administrators of other such services worldwide, since they generate suboptimal use or even waste of resources. Preventing this scenario requires countermeasures to limit the impact of such calls on the operational performance of handling genuine emergency cases. In this article, the authors intend to propose recommendations for improving the operational performance of the 112-emergency system in Romania. To this purpose, a study focused on the abusive calls generated specifically by adults has been conducted. The study solely included aspects of quantitative analysis, while those arising from qualitative methods will form the subject of a separate article. In the first stage, an analysis of the calls directed to 112 between January 2017 and May 2018 was performed, so as to detect whether there existed any spatial pattern of distribution across the different administrative jurisdictions of Romania. A more detailed analysis of call distribution across months, days and hours was also conducted. Based on this, the analysis was focused on the class of abusive calls generated by adults, with the purpose of subdividing it further into lesser categories such as frivolous, malicious and prank calls. Taking the above steps allowed the administrator of the 112-emergency system to target the right audience in order to reduce the number of abusive calls.