Geneva emergency services are raising the alarm that people are not calling them if there’s a problem because they believe someone else has already done it. And young people are not in the habit of making phone calls anyway.
A spokesman for Geneva police says people do call if something directly affects them – but if an incident is a few meters away – then it’s ignored.
One recent incident shows the effect. The fire brigade only learnt of a blaze in Geneva after they saw pictures shared on social media – and no one had called them.
Sandro Cattacin, a sociologist at University of Geneva says it’s not the case that we don’t care – we help those in immediate need – but we have an urge not to get involved.
Also, younger people communicate via text – not calls – so it’s not in their nature to dial a phone number.
The emergency services stress they would much prefer to get several calls about the same thing – than none at all.
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