Emergency hotline gets 12 million calls in 2012

Shanghai's emergency hotline received more than 12 million calls in 2012, about the same as in 2011, the municipal public security bureau said Thursday.

The 24-hour hotline, which can be reached by calling 110, handled more than 4 million reports from local residents last year, according to a report in the Shanghai Evening Post.

The city government started the hotline in 1993 to consolidate the emergency service hotlines for police and fire. The hotline now has 301 operators, including 60 who together speak nine foreign languages, according to the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau. About 80 percent of the hotline's operators are women with six to seven years of experience.

There are 137 operators working on each shift. On average, an operator answers 450 calls every 12 hours. They pick up more than 98 percent of calls immediately. The remaining 2 percent are all picked up within five seconds.

To improve efficiency, police have installed more than 28,000 signs around the city to help callers identify their location.

The hotline has received a steadily growing number of calls in recent years as mobile phones have become more prevalent in the city, according to the public security bureau.

Non-emergency calls account for 60 percent of the hotline's calls. Some people call in to ask questions and others simply dial the wrong number, Li Lin, director of the 110 Police Emergency Service Center, told the Shanghai Evening Post.

Repeated calls to the hotline and prank callers also slow down police work. In serious cases, residents who make prank calls can be punished with 10 days of detention and fines of up to 500 yuan ($80), said Lu Feng, a spokesperson for the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Non-Chinese speakers can ask for service in English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Spanish and Arabic. Last year, more than 2,000 foreigners called the hotline.

For non-emergencies, residents can send text messages to 12110. Hearing and speech impaired residents can also reach police via text.