A 34-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman will be charged in court on 28 September 2023 for their suspected involvement in separate cases of making hoax calls to the Police and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) between August and September 2023.
In the first case, the Police and SCDF received 31 calls from the 34-year-old man between 26 August 2023 and 14 September 2023, where he allegedly reported emergencies such as case of attempted suicides, loanshark harassments, fires, and serious sexual offences at various locations in Singapore. The Police and SCDF responded to the calls and established that no such incidents had occurred. The man took elaborate measures to conceal his identity, including using a foreign number to make the calls, and impersonating another person by providing a false identity over the phone. Through meticulous analysis of the call patterns and extensive ground enquiries, officers from Bedok Police Division established the identity of the man and arrested him on 18 September 2023. The man will be charged with 27 counts of making harassing or obscene telephone calls to emergency telephone numbers under Section 14A of the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act 1906 and four counts of communicating false information of harmful thing under Section 268A of the Penal Code 1871.
In the second case, the Police received two calls on 26 August 2023 from the 27-year-old woman purporting to report a case of attempted suicide at a block along Pasir Ris Street 13. The Police and SCDF responded to the calls, made from a local landline, and established that no such incident had occurred. Through follow-up investigations, officers from Bedok Police Division established the identity of the woman and arrested her on 16 September 2023. During the engagement, the woman refused to cooperate with the Police to handover her digital device for investigation. As such, she was arrested for the offence of resistance to the taking of property by the lawful authority of a public servant under Section 183 of the Penal Code 1871. She will be charged with two counts of communicating false message under Section 14D of the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act 1906.
From January to August 2023, the Police Operations Command Centre (POCC) received more than 1.3 million calls to the Emergency Number ‘999’. This amounts to more than 5,000 emergency calls a day. Out of these 5,000 calls, about 4,000 were silent calls from mobile phones.
Due to the high number of calls, call operators from POCC spent more time answering silent ‘999’ calls rather than genuine emergency calls. This resulted in longer waiting time for real emergency calls to be answered by our operators.
Those who misused the Emergency Number ‘999’ to falsely report a crime or emergency further exacerbated the problem. Such actions not only add to the waiting time for real emergency callers, they also divert scarce resources from responding to real emergencies.
The offence of making harassing or obscene telephone calls to emergency telephone numbers, punishable under Section 14A(1) of the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act 1906 carries an imprisonment term of up to one year, a fine not exceeding $5,000, or both. The offence of Communicating false message, Section 14D(1) of the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act 1906 carries an imprisonment term of up to three years, a fine not exceeding $10,000, or both. The offence of communicating false information of harmful thing, punishable under Section 268A of the Penal Code 1871 carries an imprisonment term which may extend to seven years, fine which may extend to $50,000, or both.
Commander of Police Operations Command Centre, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Lee Su Peng, said, “The Police take a serious view of persons making silent or false calls to ‘999’. It is an offence to abuse emergency hotline numbers. Where necessary, the Police, in consultation with the Attorney-General's Chambers, will prosecute such callers in court.”
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
27 September 2023 @ 9:33 PM