72% Of Calls To North Wales Police In 2013 Deemed Non-Emergency

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that 72% of calls made to North Wales Police in 2013 were deemed as non-emergency.

The figures reveal that of the 81,383 phone calls made to 999 last year, 58,666 of them were non-emergency, while only three people were charged with making inappropriate and hoax calls.

The figures reveal that the significant majority of phone calls made to North Wales Police between 2009 and 2013 were non-emergency.

It reached its peak in 2010 when 74% of the 86,182 calls received by North Wales Police were of an inappropriate nature.

A section of the North Wales Police’s website urges people not to “tie up the line”: “Every false or inappropriate 999 call to North Wales Police takes up precious time and prevents someone who really needs our immediate help from getting through to us.”

Although the Police were unable to divide up the number of non-police and non-emergency calls they receive, a few examples of the calls they receive are listed on their website:

“In the past, people have dialed 999 for the most absurd reasons. One man called us to make a complaint about BT, and another to tell us that his son was refusing to go to bed! We’ve had 999 calls about wheelie bins, parking tickets, and even prescriptions not being delivered.”

An article on the BBC News website from December 2012 listed a man saying his son had refused to go to bed was among several inappropriate 999 calls to North Wales Police that year: “Others included a request for prescribed medication, reports of a faulty phone line and a lost dog.”

Between 2009 and 2012 North Wales Police did not charge anyone with making a hoax or inappropriate call, although three were charged last year. One other was a youth case and was handed a reprimanded, while another case came to a “restorative resolution”.

As of yet we have been unable to reach North Wales Police for a comment.

5 YEAR PERIOD = 298,938/ 421,320 = 71%

2009 = 57,309/83,360 = 69%
2010 = 63,430/86,182 = 74%
2011 = 61,441/86,862 = 71%
2012 = 58,089/ 83,533 = 70%
2013 = 58,666/ 81,383 = 72%