Make the Right Call

Every day we answer thousands of phone calls from members of the public asking for our help.

We are dedicated to helping people, especially in an emergency, but we continue to see an increase in people dialling 999 when it’s not an emergency.

In 2024, our Control Room Operators dealt with over:

☎️ 63,000 emergency 999 calls

📞 172,000 non-emergency 101 calls

💻 17,500 online reports

But many of the most common queries we receive are not matters for the police.

That’s why we’re asking people to consider whether they need to call 999 or if there’s another way to get help.

Follow these 4 steps

By following these four steps, you will help make sure we are free to answer calls from people who need our help the most.

1️⃣ Police or Partners? Is this a police issue, or is another service better suited to help you? You can check here.

2️⃣ Is the information you need already on our website? Take a look here before you call.

3️⃣ Has a crime already happened and you want to report it? You can report non-emergencies online.

4️⃣ Call 101 – Do you want to share information with us, or speak to someone specific? Call the non-emergency line.

What is an emergency?

It can be hard to judge whether it is an emergency. In general, you should call 999 if:

⚠️ There is an immediate risk of harm to someone’s life or property.

⚠️ A crime is ongoing, or the offender is still in the nearby area.

⚠️ You have been involved in or witnessed a serious collision, or there is a danger on the highway.

More ways of reporting

We now offer more ways of reporting non-emergency crime and antisocial behaviour to make it easier and more convenient for you to contact us.

This includes encouraging people to go online to make non-emergency reports. This will help us provide a better, more efficient service for our communities, and assist those who need help in an emergency.

We still have a 24-hour 101 phone service you can call if you can’t report online.

If it’s not an emergency, and the crime is not happening right now, please do not call 999.

Here are some of the things you can do online through our website:

Advice and information

If you’re not sure if something is a police matter, you can find out by visiting Askthe.police.uk. Here you will find the answers to the most frequently asked policing questions. 

You will also be able to find the best people to contact if it isn't a police matter. 

We have lots of information and crime prevention advice on our website, too. You can learn how to make your home more secure, who to call if you’ve found an abandoned vehicle, and what to do if you think you’ve been a victim of fraud.

⚠ Remember

Always call 999 if someone’s life or property is in immediate danger, or there’s a crime taking place at the time. 

If there is no immediate risk to you, someone else or a property, consider if using one of the other ways of contacting us would be better.

The persistent misuse of 999 is a crime. You could be putting lives at risk, and we will seek to prosecute offenders.

Our call handlers are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, ready to take your calls and help you.

Help us help you by making sure they are available for those who really need our help in an emergency. 

Called 999 by accident?

Every year, we receive thousands of abandoned 999 calls to our Force Communication Centre. This is where someone has called 999 and hung up before speaking to an operator.

But did you know we have a duty to ensure the call was a mistaken dial, rather than a genuine emergency - and this takes valuable time that could be spent helping those in need.

For each abandoned call, it can take anywhere between ten seconds to ten minutes to confirm whether someone is in need. Following-up on abandoned calls is necessary but takes valuable time and resources away from those who genuinely need our help.

So, if you call us by mistake, no matter the reason, stay on the line and explain it was an error.

If you call 999 and hang up, the first thing we will try to do is call you back. This will show up as a withheld number, but please answer. You won’t be in trouble; we just want to check you are okay.

The ultimate advice is if you dial 999 by mistake, stay on the line so we can check you’re okay.