Police emergency call disrupted: NRW citizens should dial 112!

Police emergency call disrupted: NRW citizens should dial 112!

On July 16, 2025, there was a disruption to the police emergency number 110 in North Rhine-Westphalia, which affected numerous regions. The Interior Ministry was on alert and was looking for a solution to the technical problem. In acute emergencies, the authorities recommended calling the fire department's emergency number 112 instead. 34 of the 47 police authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia were affected, including the Warendorf district, Minden-Lübbecke, the Aachen region, Düsseldorf, Münster and other districts such as Olpe and Recklinghausen. Fortunately, the State Office for Central Police Services (LZPD) was able to give the all-clear that afternoon because the technical error had been fixed. The quickly responding police authorities had already switched internally to alternative emergency call methods so that there were no lost emergency calls. According to tagesschau.de, emergency calls can also be made via appropriate apps.

According to Telekom, the cause of the disruption is a technical anomaly that has not yet been conclusively clarified. Telekom, which operates the emergency call network in Germany, plans to issue a comprehensive statement on the incidents on Thursday. Last year, 110 was called more than 1.6 million times in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the FDP state parliamentary group sharply criticized the disruption as an “emergency call debacle” and called for fail-safe systems for the future.

The importance of emergency numbers

Emergency numbers have a high priority in Germany, especially on the European Day of Emergency Call 112, which is celebrated annually on February 11th. In 2023, the number of emergency calls rose to over 30 million, averaging around 84,000 calls per day. All emergency calls in Germany are made via the Telekom network. This operates around 250 control centers for fire and rescue services. A dedicated team of 30 employees in Meschede ensures smooth operations around the clock. telekom.com highlights that more than 90 percent of calls are made via mobile networks, with 80 percent already doing so via modern 4G and 5G technologies.

A notable peak in emergency calls was reached during Storm Lambert in June 2022, when over 10,000 emergency call attempts were received in a control center within ten minutes. This shows how important a functional and reliable emergency call system is. In addition, the automatic emergency call service eCall has been mandatory for all new car types in the EU since April 2018. callcenterprofi.de reports that this service uses mobile phone and satellite tracking to make contact with the emergency number 112 as quickly as possible. Telekom is continuously working on the development of this technology to optimize connection times and data transmission.

The repeated disruptions such as the most recent one with 110 make it clear that a robust emergency call service is essential for the safety of the population. There have been several incidents in recent years, including a nationwide failure of the 110 and 112 in November 2021 and a disruption in June 2022, which was also noticeable in North Rhine-Westphalia. So that citizens always have a reliable point of contact in an emergency, it is necessary to further improve and expand the systems.