112 긴급신고시스템 운용상의 문제점 실증분석 및 개선방안

Abstract

The excessive amount of 112 calls and unnecessary police dispatches result in significant problems such as increasing workload burden for police officers, a waste of police resources, and failure to respond to emergent situations effectively. Responding to these problems, the Korea National Police Agency recently announced a reform plan on the current 112 emergency call system. The essential features of the plan consist of distinguishing emergency calls and non-emergency calls more clearly and adopting more levels of emergency codes. Unfortunately, however, the reform plan is not based on any accurate statistical analysis regarding the current status of the emergency call system. Analyzing call-for-service data from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, this study aims to identify any problems regarding the operation of the emergency call system. We analyzed 3,212 calls randomly selected from one year’s call-for-service data between July 2014 and June 2015. First, we found that the proportions of emergency codes by types, intake-hours, and police departments were significantly different. However, no difference was detected in the call-to-dispatch time between emergency calls and non-emergency calls. Second, about 40% of emergency calls were found non-emergent in fact, and the majority of these were calls about dispute and minor drunk driving. Third, 16.5% of non-emergent calls for which police officers had been dispatched were classified as those that did not require police dispatch. The majority of these calls were about parking violation and lost property. Finally, we discussed several strategies for more effective emergency call systems which covered adopting clear criteria and protocols, enhancing professionalism through proper education and training, and utilizing analysis outcomes of call-for-service data.