The 0-0-0 line: the domestic violence emergency line

It is an emergency number dedicated exclusively to domestic violence, approved in April 2020, attached to the Office of the Women’s Advocate and not to the Police. The Act’s idea is that a domestic-violence call should not compete with the rest of the emergency traffic, and that the caller lands from the first second in a system designed for their case. The Act also contemplates sending a text message instead of speaking, which matters when the person harming you is in the same house.

The Act defines the system as one for responding to emergency calls in domestic violence cases. It imposes no requirement on the caller: no age, no relationship to the person harming them, no prior report, no active protection order. The Act conditions use of the line on nothing.

Information pending verification.

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: If you are in danger right now

   Read this before the rest. Act 49-2020 created the 0-0-0 line, but we could not confirm from a primary source that the line is operating today, and we are not going to tell you to dial a number we have not verified will answer. 9-1-1 is established by law and operating: Chapter 3 of Act 20-2017 creates the 9-1-1 Emergency Systems Bureau and defines among the public safety agencies that respond through it the Police Bureau and the Department of the Family — the same ones Article 3 of Act 49-2020 names for 0-0-0. That same Act provides that emergency calls to 9-1-1 carry no charge.

2. 2

   Step 2: What number the Act created and to whom it gave it

   The number is 0-0-0 and the Act names it “Llegó la hora cero.” Article 2 is one line long: “The 0-0-0 emergency line for domestic violence cases shall be attached to the Office of the Women’s Advocate.” That detail is not bureaucratic. It means the system’s owner is the Women’s Advocate, not the Police or the Department of Public Safety, even though the Police are one of the agencies that respond through it.

3. 3

   Step 3: Who responds through that line

   Article 3 lists them as “public safety agencies,” defined as those whose services are offered through use of the number: the Police Bureau of Puerto Rico, the Emergency Medical Services Bureau, the Firefighters Corps Bureau of Puerto Rico, the Bureau for Emergency Management and Disaster Administration, and the Department of the Family. Including the Department of the Family is deliberate: in a domestic-violence case with children in the house, the response is not only a police one.

4. 4

   Step 4: The Act contemplates writing, not only speaking

   Article 3 defines the “text-to-0-0-0 service” as the “system that allows a citizen to send a short message (SMS) or other type of text message to the 0-0-0 emergency line for domestic violence cases.” The Act defines it, and that is all the Act does: it sets no implementation deadline and does not require the phone companies to offer it, unlike what Article 3.10 of Act 20-2017 does for text-to-9-1-1.

5. 5

   Step 5: Your call is recorded, and that can work in your favour

   Article 4 authorizes it expressly: calls to the line may be “traced, identified by origin number and recorded.” And it adds what most matters to you: those recordings “shall be admissible in evidence in court in any civil or criminal proceeding.” That is, what you say on that call can later come into the case, including a protection-order case. The Act also says that calling equals consenting: “Making a telephone call to the number 0-0-0 shall constitute and be understood as a release and express consent by the person making the call to it being traced, identified by origin number, recorded.”

6. 6

   Step 6: The regulation the Act ordered and did not date

   Article 6 reads, in full: “The Office of the Women’s Advocate shall adopt the regulations necessary to implement the provisions of this Act.” There is no deadline. The OGP compilation we read, revised to April 15, 2024, does not say that regulation was adopted, and we do not assume it. Everything we know about how the line works is what is in the Act’s text, and the Act’s text does not describe how a call is handled.

7. 7

   Step 7: What this line does not replace

   A call is not a protection order or a formal complaint, and this Act does not say it is. If what you need is a protection order, that is a court filing and we have a separate guide for requesting one, including the after-hours route. If what you need is somewhere to sleep tonight, the route is the shelters. If you need someone with you through the legal process, the Women’s Advocate has a legal advocacy programme, which we also cover separately.

The 0-0-0 line is attached to the Office of the Women’s Advocate, which is also the body that must regulate it. 9-1-1, established by Chapter 3 of Act 20-2017, is run by the Department of Public Safety’s 9-1-1 Emergency Systems Bureau, and its call-reception centres are, under that Act, the public’s first point of contact with the service. For the protection order, the forum is the court.

• Assuming 0-0-0 answers: the Act creates it, but we did not verify its operational status. In an emergency, 9-1-1 is the route established by Act 20-2017.
• Thinking the Police run the line: it is attached to the Office of the Women’s Advocate.
• Believing a call equals a protection order: they are different things and the order is requested in court.
• Not knowing the call is recorded: the Act expressly authorizes it and the recordings are admissible in evidence.
• Counting on sending a text: the Act defines the text-to-0-0-0 service but sets no implementation deadline and does not require carriers to offer it.
• Waiting until you have “proof” to call: the Act imposes no requirement on the caller.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de la Procuradora de las Mujeres (OPM)

  Procuradora de las Mujeres

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Act 20-2017 (Department of Public Safety Act), Chapter 3 — 9-1-1 Emergency Systems Bureau

  dsp

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov