Would you call Nottinghamshire Police to deal with a wasp?
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE Police has released details of another of the misplaced emergency calls it has received, and issued a fresh plea for the public to use 999 responsibly.
The force's busy Control Room handles thousands of 999 emergency calls each month and while the majority of emergency calls are made for genuine emergencies, 999 call handlers still receive a number of misplaced calls - the most recent saw a caller ask for help in dealing with a wasp in their house.
Superintendent Paul Burrows, from Nottinghamshire Police’s Contact Management department, said: “The vast majority of the public understand that 999 is only for emergency calls but, despite the work we regularly do in the media, online and over-the-phone to explain to people how to use 999 responsibly, we do still receive a high number of misplaced calls to our emergency number.
“While some of the misplaced calls we receive range from honest errors of judgement to the more unusual, there is a serious point to be made here as every misplaced call our emergency call handlers receive has the potential to delay us from responding to genuine emergencies.
“All we’re asking is that people only call 999 in genuine emergencies and remember that there are other ways to contact us for less urgent enquiries, with the Nottinghamshire Police website - www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/advice - offering advice on hundreds of policing and non-policing issues and the 101 non-emergency number also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Nottinghamshire Police is appealing to the public to think before dialling and only call 999 when life is in danger, someone is seriously injured, someone is using or threatening to use violence, a crime is in progress, there is serious damage being caused to property or whenever else an immediate police response is required.
For all other non-emergency policing matters, please call 101 or visit the Nottinghamshire Police website at www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/advice
