'Please use 999 responsibly', says Nottinghamshire Police

Nottinghamshire Police are calling on the public to make 999 calls responsibly.

It has issued a plea after several more misplaced emergency calls to the force continue to waste valuable police time.

Nottinghamshire Police's control room handles thousands of 999 calls each month, the majority of which are calls made in genuine emergencies.

A recent 999 call to the force from a mother asked for Police assistance to turn off her house alarm after her children had set it off.

Superintendent Paul Burrows, from Nottinghamshire Police’s contact management department, said: "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.”

Police advice:

• Please 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 – www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/advice – for advice on how to deal with hundreds of policing and non-policing matters

• By not calling 999 when it’s anything less than an emergency, you can help to ensure Nottinghamshire Police’s team of emergency call handlers can be on-hand for when people really do need them

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