New appeal over bizarre calls to emergency lines

WOMAN STUCK IN JUMPSUIT AMONG CALLS MADE TO 999

- CARL EVE

DEVON and Cornwall Police has issued a new appeal to the public after some truly ridiculous 999 calls from the public – including a woman who was worried Dartmoor horses were ‘angry’ at her, a group of students who found a ‘sad’ seagull and a woman stuck in a jumpsuit.

Now officers are urging individuals to think first before hitting 999 or 101. Issuing the ‘make your first call the only call you make’ request, police have highlighted the vast numbers of calls they receive 24 hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, 365 days a year.

Calls to 999 and 101 are the cornerstone of police work and the force was criticised by the February 2023 report by the HMICFRS (His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services) which said call handling work was “inadequate”.

By January 2024, having responded to the rebuke, the force was able to show it had made huge improvements in the time taken to answer 999 calls and the number of calls abandoned had also been reduced.

However, while efforts were made – and are still being made – the force has asked for the public help them in their battle to keep the police lines clear from wholly inappropriate calls and urging them to firstly consider whether the issue they’re calling about is even a policing matter – and to make efforts to use the right number from the moment they pick up the phone.

On an average day call handlers deal with 859 emergencies and 1,195 non-emergency calls. In the 12 months leading up to May 2024 they received around 900,000 calls – of which 320,834 were 999 call, more than 400,000 were 101 calls and around 80,000 were website single online contact.

Here are some of the bizarre calls which have recently delayed call handlers from real emergency calls:

■ A call from a lady in Bideford about a Peacock in the road, who looked “sad as he had lost his friends”