Samu receives 12 prank calls per day in 26 cities in the Ribeirão region In the first half of this year, the Mobile Emergency Care Service (Samu) in Ribeirão Preto (SP) recorded 2,822 prank calls, according to data from the institution. According to the survey, the 192 telephone center received more than 87 thousand calls during the semester and prank calls represent around 3% of total calls. According to the regulatory doctor at Samu de Ribeirão Preto, Leonel Figueira, the service receives, on average, 166 requests for service per day. Of this total, around 12 are prank calls. ?Click here to follow the g1 Ribeirão e Franca channel on WhatsApp "We have 12 prank calls per day, at least, on average, disrupting Samu's emergency system, and not just Samu, the firefighter and military police are emergency systems that suffer prank calls on a daily basis." Samu's regional service center Reproduction/EPTV Hazings harm service The Ribeirão Preto Samu Regulation Center serves 26 municipalities. The service is carried out in stages: first, an attendant collects the patient's information; then, a regulatory doctor carries out the technical assessment of the incident; Finally, if necessary, an ambulance is sent to the scene. According to Leonel, false calls compromise the agility of the service and can harm those who really need assistance. "This is very disruptive, because the emergency cannot wait and hazing gets in the way. It uses the wrong resource, goes to the location when it is necessary and someone else may be in need at that moment, in a real emergency." Samu Regional in Ribeirão Preto (SP) Reproduction/EPTV According to the regulatory doctor, prank calls are currently practiced by people of different age groups. "Unfortunately nowadays, children make prank calls, adults, teenagers, no matter how old they are, they all disrupt the emergency system, with inappropriate malicious prank calls." Leonel states that, in some cases, false calls are used to divert the attention of emergency teams during crimes. "People called to divert the attention of Samu and the Military Police, to carry out crimes. So, they called saying that someone had been shot, Samu moved, the Police moved, they got there, it was nothing, and at that same moment a crime occurred in another region of the city." Samu vehicle in Ribeirão Preto (SP) Reproduction/EPTV Making prank calls is a crime Making prank calls to emergency services, such as Samu, is a crime provided for in Brazilian legislation and can constitute an infraction provided for in article 340, with a penalty of one to six months in detention or a fine. According to Leonel, all false calls received by Samu are recorded and the most serious cases are forwarded to the Civil Police for investigation. "Serious prank calls, which disrupt the entire system, causing harm to society, are forwarded immediately, the coordination takes the call, takes all the documentation, the medical records and makes a police report and the police chief will open the investigation and it will be investigated." SAMU ambulance parked in Ribeirão Preto (SP) Reproduction/EPTV See more news from the region on g1 Ribeirão Preto and Franca VIDEOS: Everything about Ribeirão Preto, Franca and the region