Police Non Emergency 101 Number Suffers ‘Intermittent Problems’

The 101 police telephone number was knocked out of action by a technical fault this morning. The emergency number 999 was not affected.

Update: Services appear to have been restored nationally, but there has been no local update provided.

Original story below…

At this time the non-emergency number 101 is not working nationally, with many police forces saying it is down fully whereas North Wales Police are saying it is an ‘intermittent’ fault, asking people to ‘persevere’.

Nationally the service provider Cable & Wireless have said a switch has ‘blown’ causing issues not only for the police but other systems they service.

There was no notice placed on the North Wales Police website, nor a tweet on the main @NWPolice account (27,000 followers), or their Facebook page. Some other forces have issued alternative numbers via social media and official websites.

The North Wales Police control room account (6,000 followers) however did have a message saying: “We are experiencing intermittent problems with the 101 line. This is a national fault and work is on-going to fix it – please persevere. #DS”

Sussex Police have said the issue “is expected to last into Saturday afternoon”, with Herts Police saying “The problem with the 101 number is a national issue and engineers are currently working to resolve this. It is anticipated that this could take several hours.”

UPDATE 11:45am: North Wales Police have issued an alternative number to 101, asking people to ring 0300 3300101 for non emergencies. They have also pointed people to this page on their official website for electronic contacts.

Ten minutes later the @NWPolice account tweeted:

An alternative contact number for North wales police @NWPolice is 03003300101

— North Wales Police (@NWPolice) November 22, 2014