Alarm number 112. “The first link in building the security of the country”

The general European emergency number 112 was introduced in 1991 by a resolution of the Council of Europe. The goal was to unify the form of calling for help in all EU countries. It was made available in Poland in 2005. The European emergency number 112 was established on February 11 due to the numeric record of the date – 11.02.

Several dozen operators from 17 rescue notification centers were awarded on Tuesday in Olsztyn.

Deputy Minister of the Interior and Administration Wiesław Leśniakiewicz emphasized that the operators of number 112 belong to thanks for their daily service and commitment to providing help to citizens. – This is the first link in building the security of our country, it is here that all information about waiting for the help of the ambulance, the police, the fire brigade or other service – he said.

He noted that this is an opportunity to remind you not to abuse number 112 without need, because it is intended for a situation when you really need to help someone.

The award was also awarded to 9-year-old Szymon from Elbląg, who last year called at 112 to inform about the fire of the abandoned building of the former school. Thanks to the information provided by the boy, the services managed to react quickly.

According to the Ministry of Interior and Administration data, in 2024, over 20 million connections to emergency numbers were recorded in emergency notification centers throughout the country. It is over 2 million applications less than a year ago.

Almost 37 percent All connections were qualified as unfounded, which did not require the intervention of services. On the other hand 25 percent applications have been canceled, which means that the caller hung up before making a connection.

Among the alarm events, road communication (over 760 thousand) came first. Public order disruptions (over 574 thousand), malaise (over 544 thousand) and home interventions (over 441 thousand) were often reported.

Almost 45 percent All applications were transferred to the police, over 40 percent to state emergency medical services, over 8 percent for auxiliary services, and over 6.5 percent to the State Fire Service.

The operator on the daily change received an average of 126 connections, while at night there were 81 connections. Per year, the most connections were recorded from June to August.

The average waiting time for the connection reception was 9.47 seconds. This means that the operator receives calls in 3-4 seconds from the moment the connection to the operator position is received (about 6 seconds, an announcement, which is obligatory).

Each phone must be answered, regardless of the fact that a person is calling the thirty time – said Jan Kot, operator of the emergency number 112 from the Rescue Notification Center in Lublin. He explained that stress resistance is in work in this main position.

Jan Kot is the Vice-President of the Inter-Enterprise Organization No. 14-017 OPZZ OPZZ “Labor Confederation” operators and explained that there is a difference between dispatchers and operators. – This is a very popular mistake. We are not dispatchers of line 112, but operators. The difference is that in Poland we have adopted, unlike the United States, a model where operator number 112 is a separate person from the dispatchers of the services – he explained. He added that dispatchers work at management positions or duty in the police, fire brigade or in the ambulance, which send a specific police car or ambulance to a given event.

The operator receives the application to number 112, conducts a conversation with the applicant and passes the short note to the dispatcher to the relevant service – what happened, where, who. Later, the duty dispatcher of this service qualifies the application according to his rules and sends the car to the event. He also reminded that the ambulance was the last service to retain its emergency number – 999, and the police numbers (997) and the fire brigade (998) have been redirected to operators of number 112 for several years.

The operator, as a rule, does not connect directly the calling of a specific service with the dispatcher. This only happens in strictly defined cases, for example, when the situation requires medical intelligence and such a person must be combined with a medical dispatcher.

When asked about the organization of operators' work, he explained that in rescue notification centers operators work on twelve -hour changes, both during the day and at night.

– Every day the operator contacts human dramas, accidents, suicide attempts. These are mentally burdening things. This translates into the fact that operators in centers have access to psychologists. At least one is employed in each center – noted Jan Kot.

The second important issue is divisibility of attention. During the conversation, you need to listen to what the applicant says, at the same time record and ask questions. This – especially at the beginning of work – can be burdensome.

Speaking of preliminary requirements for the candidates for this position, he reminded that, according to the Act, the operator must have a secondary education, he must not be punished and must know a minimum of one foreign language at a communicative level. This is due to the fact that operators also serve foreign language reports, and conversations conducted in English, German or Russian occur every day. Later, the operator undergoes initial training preparing for work and passes the state exam.