Hundreds of phone calls that are not real emergencies are made to Derbyshire police on their 999 number every week. One of the most dramatic examples of this is when a woman called the emergency number to say that she was lost in a nightclub.
Around 385 calls are made to the police a day, but almost a third of these calls are not real emergencies.
Local police officers are reminding the public about the 101 non-emergency number which was introduced at the end of 2011.
As well as the woman lost in a Derby club, police received calls from a woman who wanted to report a duck that had its head caught in some plastic and a man who called 999 to say that he had seen a swan trying to cross a busy road. Another man called the emergency line in December because a bar in Chesterfield would not give him his coat back and back in July a woman from Ripley called the police to tell them that there was a wasp nest in her drive.
Superintendent Kul Mahay, who is the head of the force’s Contact Management department and responsible for the staff who answer all 999 and non-emergency calls said: “I would urge people to take a moment to think which number is the most suitable one to ring before calling the police. It should be clear as to what constitutes a real emergency situation.
“By ringing 999 when your call isn’t an emergency, you tie up call handlers whose time could be better spent dealing with situations where a life is in danger or a crime is in progress.
“Our call centre staff are highly trained and they are a real one stop shop when it comes to dealing with police enquiries. However, many of the 999 calls we receive are not emergencies and sometimes, they are not even about a policing matter.”
Supt Mahay hopes that the new non emergency 101 number will reduce the number of inappropriate 999 calls. He added: “Our old non-emergency number was eleven digits long and we found that people would dial 999 because they couldn’t remember any other number to call the police. We believe that the introduction of 101 will reduce the number of 999 calls we receive in future.”