Bid to Reduce Inappropriate & Unnecessary 999 Calls Across North Wales

North Wales Police are encouraging people to use to 999 system wisely in an attempt to further reduce the amount of unnecessary and inappropriate calls made to the Joint Communications Centre in St Asaph.

As well as asking people to use the 999 system wisely to help ensure a genuine emergency is not missed, a call is being made to encourage people to phone the 101 or 0300 330 0101 non –emergency lines if it is a genuine policing matter, or to contact the force via the Live Web Chat.

Last July Wrexham.com spent the day in the St Asaph Control Room, where it was revealed that the force had received 105,930 calls during the 2014 summer holiday period (June through to September) including emergency and non-emergency calls.

Supt Alex Goss said: “Reducing unnecessary demand on our services means we can concentrate on providing a better provision for the most vulnerable persons in our communities. Each un-necessary call to us reduces time available for calls which are for genuine policing matters linked to protecting the public.

“Over 400 people every month are using the live web chat facility, which is now a 24 hour service, to report various things to the force.”

Call Centre Manager Paul Shea added: “People are becoming aware that the live web chat is a good alternative way of contacting North Wales Police. The live web chat runs alongside the facility to ‘report an incident on line’ and is a service intended for non-emergency enquiries, providing quick and positive feedback.

“These are different methods of trying to cope with demands, but in an emergency people should always call 999, which runs on a separate system.”

North Wales Police are also working collaboratively on reducing demand with their partners in other forces, and also with the other two Fire and Rescue Services across Wales.

Details about when you should call 999 have also been provided by North Wales Police, including situations where a life is in danger or someone is being physically threatened, or if you are witnessing a crime happening at the time, or think the offenders are still nearby.

Also if you witness or are involved in a serious road traffic collision where someone is badly injured, or other vehicles are causing an obstruction or a danger to other road users

Otherwise calls should be made to the bilingual non-emergency 101 line which costs 15p per call from landlines and mobiles, no matter what time of day you call or how long your call lasts or the 0300 330 0101 number, which is charged at a local rate.

Details on various ways in which to contact North Wales Police are available via the contact page on the force’s website.

You can listen to a variety of the ‘silly’ 999 calls reported to force in 2014 below: