In Brief 2020/9 Emergency Toll-Free Telephone Services Part 2: A Police Line in Papua New Guinea Judy Putt, Doris Mararang and Amanda H.A. Watson Introduction This In Brief presents a case study of a toll-free police telephone service that has been established in Papua New Guinea (PNG). A companion piece (Part 1) outlined some of the key challenges encountered when setting up and operating such telephone services in challenging contexts. PNG has a reputation for high rates of crime, especially in its urban centres. The public sector is under-resourced, with the size of and funding for the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) not keeping abreast of the country’s rapid rise in population. Public surveys and research conducted over the years indicate widespread distrust of the police, their unreliable responses to reported crimes and low arrest rates (Dinnen 2017). A public/private partnership led to the founding of a toll-free emergency police telephone line in PNG’s second largest urban centre, Lae. How it was developed The toll-free emergency police telephone line in Lae was developed to address complaints about the lack of police responsiveness received by the then metropolitan superintendent through social media. In partnership with Digicel, 1 the Lae Metropolitan Command established the telephone line in mid- 2016, though the official launch was somewhat later. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the aim of the service was for the public to make free, confidential calls in emergencies, report suspicious or illegal activity and provide intelligence on planned crime or the whereabouts of offenders. The toll-free number was promoted through signs on bus stops and police vehicles, newspaper articles and 500,000 text messages sent by Digicel to their clients. The costs of establishing and operating the service have been borne jointly by Digicel and the RPNGC, with additional assistance provided to police as follows. When a call is received, the time and place of the reported incident are logged at the metropolitan communications centre and, where needed, police at stations or on patrol in public safety vehicles are contacted and asked to respond. Originally set up to cover the city of Lae and its surrounding settlements, the telephone number has now been used in rural areas of the province and other parts of the country that have Digicel network coverage. However, Lae police do not have the capacity to respond to non-Lae calls, and can only try to contact their counterparts in the relevant locations. Key stakeholders refer to the following as having contributed to the successful establishment of the toll-free line: • Leaders of Digicel and the Lae Metropolitan Command working closely together from the outset; • Digicel not charging for the establishment of the line and the ongoing costs of calls, as the service is viewed as a way to promote the company, reward its customers and give back to the community; • Financial, logistical and in-kind support from the local business community, the local member of parliament and the Australian Federal Police; 2 • Recruiting the ‘right people’ for the small team of four who operate the communications centre; and • Expanding the police’s capacity to respond to the calls by extending the operating hours of the police public safety vehicles. How it has worked During the initial phase of the line in 2016–17, it was estimated that 60 per cent of calls were from the public, 25 per cent were from police officers and the remainder (15 per cent) were missed, false information or abusive calls. In 2018, there were a total of 3119 calls about crime incidents, plus 105 missed calls, 401 abusive calls and 10 false calls, as well as a small number of text messages. As of August 2019, use of the line has increased to an estimated 1500 calls per month, with the afternoon shift receiving the most calls and text messages (53 per cent) compared to the night (19 per cent) and morning shifts (28 per cent). With demand on the rise, an increasing proportion of calls are not answered. During the first three months of 2019, one-fifth (20 per cent) of 1534 calls were recorded as missed, with a small proportion recorded as abusive (4 per cent).