One of Britain’s biggest police forces has urged people to think twice before calling its non-emergency 101 number as it struggles to handle a record 1.5m calls a year.
Greater Manchester police (GMP) said members of the public should no longer call 101 as a “go-to reaction”, but instead consider messaging the force online or contact an alternative service.
The force said it was receiving 3,800 calls a day to 101 and 999, putting officers under further strain as they struggle to cope with the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing.
Assistant chief constable Vanessa Jardine said: “We need to encourage people to think a little differently than they have before – calling us on 101 is often people’s go-to reaction when they need advice outside of an emergency.
“We want to help people realise that there is already lots of information out there, that sometimes there are more appropriate or specialist services available but that ultimately, we will always be on hand if someone needs us.”
GMP’s move follows concerns raised by police chiefs across England and Wales following an unprecedented increase in 999 calls in recent months. The strain was felt more sharply in England’s major cities, with some dealing with more calls on regular days this summer than on New Year’s Eve.
Data compiled by the National Police Chiefs’ Council show that the number of 999 calls across the UK rose 11% in the past year. Recently the number has spiked with many forces experiencing record volumes in May and June. Forces covering London, Manchester, Birmingham and the East Midlands had record 999 call volumes in June, the council said.
In Greater Manchester, police handled a record 1.5m calls last year, of which 42,328 were passed immediately to other agencies. Almost half of all calls to 999 were classed as non-emergencies and should have been reported via 101, GMP said.
Of the total 1.5m calls, 1% were nuisance or hoaxes, the force said. Previous examples of nuisance callers have included a man who called 999 to report his pizza delivery being 45 minutes late. Another caller phoned 999 to say there was a hedgehog in his back garden. A third called police to say a vending machine had not given him his change.
As part of a campaign to reduce the number of 101 calls, GMP urged callers to follow a “four-step rule” before picking up the phone: First, is it a police issue – or is there another service that is more appropriate? Second, is the information already on GMP’s website? Third, if a crime has already happened, or if members of the public wish to share information with the police, call 101; and fourth, if a crime is in progress or if there is a threat to life or property, call 999.
Earlier this month it emerged that nearly one in four calls to GMP’s 101 number were abandoned in June as the service struggled to keep up with demand. Callers waited an average of 12 minutes and seven seconds before hanging up, according to a freedom of information request by the Manchester Evening News. One caller held on for just over three and three quarter hours before giving up.
Across the country, almost 3.5m calls to 101 went unanswered between 2012 and and May 2016, according to freedom of information requests, with GMP becoming the latest force to urge people to think twice before calling the number.
The service was first introduced by Labour in 2006 but was scrapped two years later because of high costs and its failure to reduce emergency calls. The non-emergency number was reintroduced across Britain in 2011 and 2012.
It was designed to replace local police station numbers and cut the number of 999 calls by diverting non-urgent calls away from the main force control room.
