In a small village here in Sweden there has just been a huge fire in a apartment.
A 12-year old boy called the emergency, but was denied for the reason of "Prank calling".
5 minutes later, an elder guy noticed the fire and called emergency. Now there where firetrucks on the way.
A five year old girl died in that accident, just becuase the operators thought it was a prank call.
Thoughts?
I'm watching 'Veckans Brott' with Leif G.W. Persson, there are many disturbing things with our country's police organization, though it could be worse..
This case in particular is quite vexing as it is most likely founded on the preconception that children would be more likely to make prank calls, which is probably true, but they must be damn sure it isn't a prank before they hang up, shameful. Just think of how this boy will now act when these kinds of emergencies happen again, not only him, but others lose trust in the police this way.
Edit: On the 'how can they be sure it isn't just a prank call?'; it is often quite easy to discern prank calls from real ones, pattern of speech, whether they can hold for laughter(if it is real), also the interaction in and of itself, because most are in a state of shock at times of emergencies, thus recognisably so when talking to them not to mention also with a tint of panic(can't say in the boy's case though, he might just have been shocked).
I realise this is mostly judged by experience etc. of the operator, but the fact that these cases are rare, makes you think there was something off with the operator, not the kid.
