On December 9th, 2009 the Emergency Response Centre (ERC) answered 6 millionth call to pan-European emergency number 112. In this case woman called to report the intrusion of two masked males into neighbour’s apartments and noise in there. ERC operator that answered the call evaluated the situation and immediately incorporated police dispatcher into tripartite conference call. Police dispatcher promptly dispatched police patrols to the scene of emergency. Presuming risk to life or health of those residing in the apartments ERC operator simultaneously dispatched ambulance to the location. Police officers arrived in several minutes and arrested six suspect assailants, while ambulance rendered first aid to the owner of the apartments.
ERC operator that answered 6 millionth emergency call believes, that it always critical to act in prompt and accurate way for assailants might be unpredictable. Asked why she has chosen operator replied: “It’s important to me to do meaningful things. I want to help people in distress. It’s always good to know all emergency responders have acted properly and the assistance have been provided in time as it was this case”.
 “Six million emergency calls mean six million people that have called number 112 to ask for help, so that we feel particularly responsible for assistance to be rendered quickly and professionally. In the chain of immediate assistance input of our operators is considerably important because they are first to hear call for help” – told Artūras Kedavičius, Manager of ERC.
ERC started emergency call handling operations in on September 1st, 2004 in the region of Vilnius City Municipality. Today in ERC’s Vilnius Division emergency calls are handled by 40 shift officers, 10 more shift officers are responsible for command & control over fire responders. They work 12 hour or 8 hour shifts. During peak hours one ERC operator answers up to 30 emergency calls and passes up to 8 dispatch alerts to emergency services.
By calling 112 one can ask for immediate assistance of main emergency services: Fire and Rescue, Police and Ambulance. Main task of ERC – to answer emergency calls and to respond to emergency requests.