Prevention

Police Emergency Number 113

IF YOU HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN, OR HAVE WITNESSED A TRAFFIC ACCIDENT, IF YOU HAVE BEEN A VICTIM OF OR WITNESSED A CRIMINAL OFFENCE, IF YOU BELIEVE YOUR PEACE HAS BEEN DISTURBED, OR IF YOU BELIEVE THAT THE POLICE CAN PROTECT YOUR SAFETY IN ANY OTHER WAY, CALL 113!

Whenever citizens require police assistance, they can call the 113 emergency number. Emergency calls are received and recorded by the deputy shift manager of the operation and communication centre at the regional police directorate. Also when a citizen requests police assistance by calling the telephone number of the nearest police station, in person or by seeking the direct assistance of police officers at the location of an incident or offence, the operation and communication centre is immediately notified.

The police officer receiving a notification of an emergency incident must request as detailed information as possible from the notifier so as to determine the priority level of the required intervention and the method of its organisation.

Anyone calling the Police using the 113 emergency number should describe the incident as accurately as possible, state the consequences the incident has had on people, the precise time and place of occurrence, possibilities for accessing the scene of emergency, the reason for the offence, the number of people who witnessed the incident and finally their personal data.

Following the receipt of an emergency call, the shift manager assesses the priority of events requiring intervention dividing them into those needing immediate dispatch to the scene and those that can wait.

In 2006, the operation and communication centres of police directorates have also been labelling emergency calls. Out of all emergency calls, only 8,462 or 4.20% proved urgent.

Emergency calls are all calls connected to incidents:

• that pose a direct threat to lives,
• where violence has been used or upon receiving a call a real threat has been assessed,
• where a police officer has been attacked or requires help or
• actions for the committing of a criminal offence have been announced or that a criminal offence
• is already being committed and the perpetrator of the criminal offence could escape,
• in which a traffic accident has occurred involving serious bodily injury or a traffic accident which threatens the safety of other traffic participants and the shift manager assessed that the incident requires immediate police intervention.

TABLE: Number of telephone calls made to the 113 emergency number of individual operations and communications centres of police directorates in 2006:

Nevertheless, citizens do not only call the 113 emergency telephone number when they require police intervention. Residents also call the 113 number requesting general information (for example, road conditions and conditions at border crossings, which countries require an entry visa, and the like) or in provocation. The Police consider these "empty calls". The Police in this sense perform a preventive and service activity with regard to such calls. Foreign research has also shown that only 20% of calls regard true police activities, while the remaining 80% fall under so-called service activities. The situation in Slovenia in recent years reflects a similar picture.

Structure of calls to the 113 emergency number

From the annual work reports of the Operation and Communication Centre of the General Police Directorate, data showed that only 16.8% of calls received by the Slovenian Police in 1997 were emergency calls with only 17.1% in 1998, 15.6% in 1999, 19.3% in 2000, 20.43% in 2001, 32.38% in 2002, 28.92% in 2003, 25.66% in 2004 and 24.43% in 2005. These figures show that approximately three quarters of people call the Police seeking various information and advice while some also call by mistake and for the purposes of provocation. We could say that the operation and communications centres indirectly also perform preventive police work, meaning that they provide advice to callers or prevent them from performing negative activities.

Comparative overview of emergency calls to the 113 police number during 1997-2006

Comparative growth in the number of emergency calls
and all calls to the 113 number during 1997 - 2006

Share of emergency calls to 113 by individual police

Response time of police forces

The response time comprises the time from placing a call to 113 emergency number, which is received by an employee of the operation and communication centre of the regional police directorate, to the arrival of a police patrol, crime scene group or other competent service to the location of the emergency event, offence or incident. The speed of police action is also connected to the time required by a police patrol to arrive at the scene. Through its work, the operation and communication centre of the regional police directorate can decrease the amount of time between the receipt of an emergency call and the dispatch of a police patrol to the scene of the incident.

Thus, the average response time of the Police with regard to emergency intervention events in 2006 for the entire Slovenian region was 13'22", reflecting 60.85% of the average police response time for all emergency events in Slovenia which is 21'58".

Response times of police patrols by the operative-communications centres
of individual regional police directorates