A Third of All 112 Calls in the Netherlands Are Not Genuine Emergencies
New figures show that 3.5 million calls were made to the Dutch emergency number last year, of which a third did not result in help being dispatched.
The Dutch emergency number 112 received 3.5 million calls in 2025, but a significant share of them placed no real demand on the emergency services. Figures seen by the NPO Radio 1 programme Het Misdaadbureau from PowNed show that the pressure on the dispatch centre is growing, partly driven by a car safety system most drivers do not properly understand.
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What the figures show
More than one million of the 3.5 million calls in 2025 were not intended for 112 at all. One in three calls was ultimately not connected to the police, fire brigade or ambulance. These include so-called pocket diallers who accidentally activate their phone, drunk callers, and frequent callers who sometimes verbally abuse dispatchers. Many callers also reach for the emergency number for situations that could easily be handled through the non-emergency police number 0900-8844.
The unexpected problem with car safety technology
A growing challenge for the emergency services comes from the eCall system. Since 2018, every new car sold in the EU has been required to have this alarm system fitted. Although it is designed to immediately transmit the location and number of occupants to emergency services in the event of a serious crash, in practice it is frequently triggered by accident. Of the 37,500 eCalls received in 2025, three-quarters turned out to be false alarms. nporadio1
112 specialist Arjan van Geel explained the cause: "Sometimes there is a malfunction in the automatic system, but much more often it happens that car users press the button manually because they do not know what the button is for. People do not realise that they are connected directly to 112 when they press the button."
What eCall is and how it works
eCall, short for Emergency Call, is a safety system that contacts the 112 emergency centre automatically after an accident. It transmits the precise location of the vehicle, the direction of travel, the number of occupants, the vehicle type and fuel type. A 112 dispatcher then contacts the occupants by phone and sends emergency services to the location. The system can also be triggered manually by pressing a button inside the car.
All new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles that came to market after 1 April 2018 are required to have eCall installed. All 112 centres across the European Union are equipped to receive eCall signals.
Why false alarms matter
Every call to 112 must be handled by a dispatcher, regardless of whether it turns out to be genuine. A high volume of non-emergency calls reduces the capacity available for real emergencies and adds to the workload of dispatchers. The three-quarters false alarm rate among eCall contacts is particularly striking given that the system was introduced specifically to save lives in serious accidents where occupants cannot call for help themselves.
