Police control room struggles with crank calls, some even from NIMHANS patients in Bengaluru

While crank calls have always been a concern for Bengaluru City Police’s (BCP) Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) — Namma 112, some of these calls have begun to come from even mentally disturbed inmates of NIMHANS.

According to staff at the control room, several mentally disturbed people call the control room as ‘they want someone to lend them an ear’.

“Patients inside NIMHANS somehow get their hands on a phone and call us. Some of them are well-educated and speak excellent English. At first, we do not realise that they are patients and disturbed. At such times, we ask them if they are a patient or an attender, and ask them to pass the phone to the attender. We then request the attenders to ensure that patients do not make such calls,” a female staff member said. 

Between January 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, the control room, which has been outsourced, received 786 crank calls. “These calls might not be from 786 different persons. There are some repeated callers,” said a supervisor.

Cannot block callers permanently

While such callers are added to the crank call list, they cannot be permanently blocked as Namma 112 is an ERSS. Some crank calls even go on up to 11-12 minutes, the staff members reported.

Another category of callers who speak for long duration are senior citizens.

“Sometimes they call because they do not know how to deal with a problem or because they just want to talk. Some of them also complain about loud music playing in a commercial establishment near them and ask us to cut off the electricity supply to the establishment,” another staff member explained.

“They tell us that they are heart patients or have some co-morbidity, and they have to take tablets and go to sleep. We have to explain to them that we cannot cut the electricity or ask them to shut down the music as the law permits them to play music until 10 p.m.,” she added.

When asked how they were tackling such calls, Kshama Mishra, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Command Centre, said, “Sometimes such crank callers are not in the right mental state. What we can do is train our people. We continuously train them to be professional and how to disconnect crank calls. We cannot do much about the ones who call, as the improvement in behaviour should come from their side.”

Complaints about missing shoes

Apart from such calls, the control room also receives calls about trivial complaints.  

“People sometimes call to say that their branded shoes have been stolen from their house and ask to send police to retrieve the CCTV footage and recover their shoes. Sometimes, these shoes are worth ₹20,000 – ₹25,000. So, we do send police there to ensure that there is no theft in the future,” said a staff member.

Reprimanding children

Another staff member said that they sometimes even get calls from parents asking them to speak to their children when they are refusing to go to school. “They say that when we speak to the children saying that we are police officers, they get scared and go to school.” 

Some people call to complain about how the police do not help them, about traffic jams, or bring up the issue of bribery. “Suspended police personnel also call to complain about their superiors,” a male member of the team said.

Appeal to the public

The staff expect callers to maintain some basic etiquette. One of them explained, “We are here to respond to emergencies. When you make a crank call, you are taking precious time during which we might not be able to attend to an actual emergency. So, please call us only when you face an actual emergency.”