It’s a topic that’s seen a lot of discussion in recent times. Why is it that we can only call the police?Across the globe, authorities are calling for other options. Mainly, the introduction of a free SMS service for contacting the police. In Nepal, police officials are requesting that the Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) introduces an SMS emergency hotline.The move comes from the public urging for a new development to inform police about crime.According to recent reports, officials have said “there are also many circumstances when people cannot give a call at the police control room. During these unforeseen events, the SMS service will be helpful”.Here in Australia, we’ve been talking about this very idea for a while. The notion has the support of the telecommunications industry. With Telstra insisting that only being able to report emergencies across one channel is insufficient.Right now, all the current systems we have in place for text messaging the police are restricted to those with communications difficulties, such as deaf people. However, expanding this to the general public could have several benefits for ensuring safety.In a lot of situations, the noise made by making a phone call would actually heighten the danger. Imagine your home had been invaded and you were hiding, wouldn’t you rather send a message than have to call up?We use multiple channels for communication daily; including emailing, text messaging and OTT messaging services like WhatsApp and Facebook messenger. So there’s no reason why, when it comes to the most important thing in our lives: our safety, we should only be utilising one of the avenues available to us.If you’d like to share a view, leave a comment below!
Prachi Bametha
Marketing Coordinator, Esendex Australia