The public asked to know police emergency lines

Chief Superintendent Martin Ayiih, the Adenta Divisional Commander, has called on the public get acquainted with the toll free and other fixed line numbers of each police station.

He said the two main toll free short codes used to contact the police in times of emergencies are 18555 and 191.

“When in distress, use them but don’t abuse the opportunity as they are for emergency situations,” Chief Superintendent Ayiih said in an interview with the GNA.

He said 18555 are for users of MTN and Vodafone, while the 191 are for users of Airtel, Tigo, Expresso and Vodafone.

He said when the free codes are called the details of the individual concerned are captured and relayed to patrol teams in the neighbourhood.

Chief Superintendent Ayiih said the patrol teams either use Motorola or the Gota handsets thus it is important for the public to provide clear and precise information on what pertains to a situation.

He explained that the two handsets have over the years been the major modes of communication.

Chief Superintendent Ayiih said unfortunately majority of the rank and file still do not have access to such valuable modes of communication so “it’s difficult to communicate with officers in the field”.

He said just like the Gota handset, Motorola is limited to senior officers, patrol teams and a few others and it is not sufficient to meet operational needs of the Adenta Divisional Area.

He said using the handsets, communication within the service is poor as sometimes messages within the same regional area need to be relayed before others could decipher the information.

He called on government to increase the number of communication handsets for the officers on the field saying: “Past governments have done well but we still need more.”