Some 999 calls to police deemed non-emergency

The increasing burden of non-emergency 999 calls is putting significant strain on police forces across the country. On average, police forces receive a 999 call every three seconds, with research indicating that a substantial 75-80% of these calls do not warrant an immediate emergency response.

In 2023 for example, Humberside Police reported that a staggering 88% of their received calls fell under the category of non-emergency while Derbyshire Police stated that 71% of their calls were non-emergency. This trend not only diverts valuable resources dedicated to answering these non-emergency calls, but also incurs substantial costs, with each non-emergency call estimated to cost up to £1,000 (West Yorkshire Police 2022)

Earlier this year, a Freedom of Information Request was conducted into the number of emergency calls that constabularies across the UK are receiving, that are deemed as non-emergencies. A total of 25 forces responded to the FOI. Of those that responded, among them Merseyside and Manchester, the majority reported a high number of non-emergency calls.

Ryan spoke to Naz Dossa, CEO of Peoplesafe.