The Number 112: The Awareness of Poles Compared to The Remaining Citizens of European Union Countries

The present article describes the emergency communication system based on the Europe-wide emergency number 112. The author presents the classification of calls, which are directed to public-safety answering points in the Republic of Poland, as well as other European countries. This is followed by an analysis of these calls, taking into account the percentages of justified, unjustified and abandoned calls, and presenting countries in which their abundance constitutes a serious problem. The final part of the article refers to the proposals of changes, which could be introduced in order to reduce the number of unjustified calls and improve the functioning of the emergency communication system.