Police Forces Take the Streets After Netherlands Telephone Outage

After a major telephone outage in the Netherlands took down the nation’s emergency phone number yesterday, police forces took the streets to ensure people could contact emergency services through them.

• By Kaitlyn DeHaven
• Jun 25, 2019

When a major telephone outage hit the Netherlands yesterday, the country turned to a physical police presence to help residents until phone lines were available again.

The outage took down the country’s emergency phone number as well as the numbers of many businesses and municipalities. As a precautionary measure, police sent officers into the streets so people could approach them for emergency help.

Suzanne van de Graff told national broadcaster NOS that if anyone needs help, they should go out onto the street and find a police officer.

“We’re appealing to everybody who wants to report an emergency and needs help to … go onto the street,” van de Graff said. “Police officers with walkie-talkies are taking to the streets as much as possible so they can be spoken to.”

Police issued an alternative emergency phone number an hour after the outage began around 4 p.m.

Some police forces urged people to use social media to contact emergency services, and others advised people to go to public buildings for help.

KPN reported on its website that the outage affected both landlines and mobile services. They said that mobile data and fixed internet was still working. The cause of the outage was not immediately clear.