Domestic violence hotline plagued with pranks calls

…over 1500 hoax calls made in 3 months

The 914 domestic violence hotline aimed at helping persons in distress has been plagued with over 1500 prank calls.
During a recent interview with this publication, Human Services and Social Security Minister, Dr Vindhya Persaud stated that most of the prank calls made to the 914 hotline are by children.

The Minister urged that parents teach their children about the usages of hotlines and the serious nature of misusing these lines.
She stated in instances where persons call and hang up, this can force the entire operation into action.
In report from the Ministry, it was stated that, from the establishment of the hotline to July 2021, some 1501 prank calls were received.
“I want to appeal to parents to teach your children about 914 but also teach them about the seriousness of the hotline and that if children are calling, we want to hear from those children but we want to utilise the hotline for the purpose it was intended,” the Minister said, adding that sometimes persons “call us and they hang up. We would advise not to, because then our operator would have to call that person back if they called an error, or if it was a prank call, if was a call-in error just say it was a mistake and we called, because our whole operation will go into effect if we can’t get somebody…supposed it’s an active case of violence happening so, it’s a very serious operation,” she explained.
The Minister also related that the hotline has received 511 genuine calls since its establishment in July 2021, which were domestic violence and child abuse related.
“To date, 914 has been the main entry point for domestic violence, and since then from December 2020 to July 2021 we would’ve had 511 calls with the highest number coming from Region 4 with 202 calls.”
“The average rate per month varies between 40 to over 80 calls, in those calls they are not only concentrated on domestic violence as we know but also child abuse, so the hotlines cater to child abuse, domestic violence and elder abuse.”
She also added that during the same period, the Ministry has seen an increase in reports made by men and boys.
“One thing that has remained constant is that the numbers of person affected by violence and abuse still remain solidly women and girls. What we would’ve seen is more reporting from men and boys compared to the years before.”
“914 would’ve open up that channel because people I suppose like the anonymous way of reporting on 914 when comes identity revelation,” she added.