Damovo arrests flow of false police calls

Comms specialist wins CRN/Syscap Approved Technology Innovator of the Month award for February

Communications specialist Damovo has won the CRN/Syscap Approved Technology Innovator of the Month award for February for a project that could save UK police forces £16m a year.

Damovo came up with a solution to the growing problem of 'silent' 999 calls made to the emergency services from mobile phones.

On many mobiles, there is a single-key activation for 999 calls and last year up to a quarter of the 10,000 emergency calls received each day by the Metropolitan Police were dialled unintentionally from mobile phones.

The Damovo Silent Solution system enables emergency operators to divert silent calls to a special exchange at New Scotland Yard by asking the caller to key 55 if the call is genuine.

Jim Watson, Metropolitan Police and emergency services manager at Damovo, said: "We sat down and looked at how we might be able to separate these calls out.

"When operators pick up a call and it is silent, they are instructed to connect to the auto attendant.

"That might take only 10 or 20 seconds but, when one in every four calls is a silent mobile, that's holding up genuine calls."

Superintendent Barry Clark, of the Metropolitan Police, said: "Prior to the introduction of Silent Solution, the police could do nothing with these calls.

"Operatives whose job it was to respond to legitimate emergencies were wasting hours every day while lines were being blocked with silent calls.

"Damovo's solution has allowed these operators to dedicate themselves to genuine 999 calls."

To enter for an award, resellers or their customers should fill in the entry form at www.technology-innovator.co.uk.

They can also call Lisa Glover on (020) 7316 9000 or email [email protected].