'Please use 999 responsibly', says Nottinghamshire Police

Nottinghamshire Police has released details of another misplaced emergency call.

The emergency call reported a local newsagents for short changing an individual after buying two drinks.

Police have now issued a fresh plea for the public to use 999 responsibly.

Notts Police's busy control room handles thousands of 999 emergency calls each month and while the majority of emergency calls are made to request police support in genuine emergencies, 999 call handlers still receive a number of spurious and misplaced calls which delay them from dealing with the most urgent.

Superintendent Paul Burrows, from the force's contact management department, said despite the majority of 999 calls being genuine emergencies, they do still receive a high number of misplaced calls.

"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."

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