WELLINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government on Friday rolled out a "ground-breaking" new service for non-emergency calls, which aims to provide better service for the public and to take the pressure off the iconic 111 phone number.
The single non-emergency number is "105", Police Minister Stuart Nash said in a statement.
New Zealand Police receive more than two million calls a year and almost 900,000 are made to the 111 service. There are around 1.2 million non-emergency calls to other Police numbers, Nash said.
"Just 20 percent of 111 calls result in an emergency response, known as priority one. Another 20 percent are priority two. This means at least 60 percent of calls to the 111 number could be better dealt with on other channels. Some involve complaints about parking or noise or cheeky children," the minister said.
"Calls to 111 should be limited to cases where an emergency is happening now or just happened and there's a threat to life or property. If it's already happened and there's no immediate danger, call 105."
Nash said he hopes the introduction of the three-digit "105" number will make it easier for callers to get in touch with the right part of the police service for the right reasons.
