The Munich Presidium has resided in a green building on Ettstrasse since 1913. Over the past 110 years, the address has become synonymous with the police headquarters. “We don’t want to celebrate ourselves,” says President Thomas Hampel, who wants to use the anniversary year differently: “We want to focus on the emergency call.” As you know, his number is 110.
Less well known is obviously the occasions on which they should be called. That’s why the executive committee started a campaign under the motto “110 – our number. Your security”. At the start on Friday, Marcus da Gloria Martins, head of the operations center, said: “We don’t have to work on the reputation of the number, but on knowing when to dial it.”
Gloria Martins reported that many people who call 110 actually wanted to go to the fire department, which can be reached on 112. But there is also the opposite case, because on smartphones the 112 is stored under the emergency call button. His rule of thumb: 112 for medical emergencies, 110 for security-related processes. Before the Europe-wide emergency call day on February 11, the Red Cross also pointed out that the emergency service number 112 should be used for life-threatening situations.
With the campaign, the police want to break down inhibitions among older people and at the same time inform them about new forms of crime. For example, she created a postcard with warnings (“The police will never collect money or valuables from you”) and a sticker: “Hang up first – dial 110” for the scam involving shock calls from fake police officers.
Misuse of the emergency call is punishable – and can be expensive
Marcus da Gloria Martins encouraged people to trust their gut feeling when in doubt if something was wrong somewhere. It is important for the police to “get to a place early on where things are not as they should be”. At the same time, he asked for understanding that with an average of 1,000 and at the top of 2,000 missions per day and only about 200 available patrol cars, priorities had to be given. Then it sometimes takes half an hour before the police are there in a car accident with body damage.
Sometimes the 110 is misunderstood as a complaints office, reported Marcus da Gloria Martins: “What we don’t need are people who call because the pizza from the delivery service is cold, the WiFi doesn’t work at home, the S-Bahn didn’t come on time is.” Since Gloria Martins warned against wantonly dialing 110 for fun and frolics: The abuse is punishable by law and “can become expensive relatively quickly”. And no one should believe that they can get through with a suppressed number: “Every number is displayed here.”