The number 112 received an average of 19,051 calls per day and, in 2023, totaling 6,953,906 calls, of which almost a fifth (18%) were false calls, the Public Security Police indicated today, regarding the Day European Championship of 112, which is celebrated today.
According to the National Directorate of the PSP to Executive Digest, throughout last year the number of calls means that an average of 579,492/month and 19,051/day were received, which were answered within a time window of approximately 9 seconds.
Of the total calls received, 71% were answered, with the remainder, which were abandoned, being calls abandoned by those calling the line before being answered by the operator, and also ‘rings’ or accidental calls.
Of these contacts, 1,394,612 were registered as emergencies, leading to the provision of assistance in more than 116,000 incidents per month, something like 3,820 per day, according to PSP accounts, which operationally coordinates the line. This means that, on average, only around 20% of calls received are actually emergencies.
On the other hand, 1,265,081 false calls were recorded (18% of total calls) and 142,488 calls were considered non-occurrences.
In 2023, the trend continued for the vast majority of calls, around 86% of the total number of registered emergencies, to request support in situations of life-threatening illness or trauma/immediate need for medical assistance. This is followed by alerts for crimes in progress or that have just occurred at the time of the call (78,865 calls), road accidents (51,591 calls) and fires (26,899 calls) as the main reasons for contacting the 112 service.
Peak of 121,714 calls at WYD
According to PSP data, last year there was a peak in calls in the period between August 1st and 6th, precisely the days when World Youth Day (WYD) took place in Lisbon. On those days, 121,714 calls were registered, an increase of 24,000 compared to the same period in 2022 (97,437), which is equivalent to an increase of more than 4,000 calls per day.
“Like previous years, in 2022 there were no peaks due to seasonality, but rather due to events, such as large rural fires, road accidents involving several vehicles, extreme natural events such as floods, which trigger contact between different people. the report