When people are in an emergency or in danger, they should send a text message to the number 12110 instead of dialing 110, as they had in the past, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
"When someone was in danger and your safety is threatened, his first reaction was often to call 110," said Cheng Renhua, director of the ministry's command center. "But doing that might not be best in all circumstances."
As an example, he said that if a robbery were to occur on a long-distance bus, passengers who called 110 to report the crime to police would be in danger of being overheard by the robbers and suffering retaliation.
In 2008, the ministry began encouraging the people who wanted to report emergencies to the police to send text messages to "12110".
"Setting up this system was meant as a way to offer conveniences to the disabled, especially to the deaf and dumb, and to help victims who get caught in situations in which they can't call the police to make a report."
Because of technical difficulties, the system has not been widely adopted.
Cheng said it has not been infrequent that text messages to police have been delayed or even lost.
Besides, "when people dial 110, their calls will be received by the public security authorities that are nearest to the location of the emergency. But text messages sent to 12110 won't be received in the same way," he said.
If police officers receive an emergency report but are unclear where it came from, they will ask the sender to specify his location. Once possessed of that information, they will forward it on to the public security authority in charge of that place, a process that greatly delay the arrival of assistance, he said.
To solve the problem, the Zhejiang provincial public security bureau in 2009 adopted a method of adding district phone numbers to 12110, a system will help determine the geographical origin of emergency text messages.
For example, emergency reports from Hangzhou will be sent to 12110571 and those from Jinhua to 12110579.
"The method can be used to send messages directly to local police, which will save a lot of time," Cheng said.
He also said the ministry is talking to telecom operators about the possibility of making it free to send the text messages. Sending one now costs 0.1 yuan (2 cents).
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