Revealed: The ridiculous 999 calls received by police, inlcuding one time-waster who asked officers to wake him up at 9.30am for a court hearing
- Hampshire Police analysed 715 calls 999 calls it received on one Saturday night
- Less than half of the calls were genuine with one man asking for a lift to court
A police force today released audio of ridiculous 999 calls it receives – with one time-waster even asking officers to provide him with a 9.30am wake-up call and drive him to court.
As part of a crackdown, Hampshire Constabulary released examples of ‘frustrating’ and pointless emergency calls they get on a daily basis.
One caller can be heard informing police they saw a deer which looked like ‘Bambi’ running through their estate and another dialled 999 to say ‘I found a wallet’.
In another, a man can be heard asking police to wake him at 9.30am and escort him to his court appearance.
Hampshire Constabulary also revealed they receive calls about UFO sightings and even people complaining their pizza hasn’t been delivered.
Call handlers received emergency calls from 714 members of the public during one Saturday night shift – with only 49 per cent being genuine emergencies (file photograph)
An audit found 44 calls were made in error, 171 were general enquiries or updates, while 150 others should have gone to 101 or online
New research by the force found only 49 per cent of the calls it takes in a day are genuine emergencies.
Hampshire Constabulary analysed the 714 calls it took from 5pm on a Saturday last month to 4am to following Sunday morning.
Just 349 (49 per cent) were emergencies, 44 were made in error, 171 were general enquiries or updates to existing reports, and 150 calls should have been reported online or via 101.
In the footage released by police, one caller said: ‘I have a letter from Hampshire police and they told me about court.
‘I was wondering if someone can wake me up at 9.30am… and take me to the court.’
A stunned call handler replied: ‘Sorry, have you called 999 asking us to wake you up at 9.30 in the morning to take you to court?’
Another caller dialled 999 to say ‘I found a wallet’ and another phoned to say ‘I saw a deer running through our estate’, describing it as ‘like a little Bambi’.
Today, Superintendent Anna Skelton said: ‘It’s frustrating for us when we’re trying to provide the public with the best possible service that we can. But we receive phone calls with very malicious intent or with intent just to abuse our call handlers.
‘A recent example was someone calling to say that their pizza hadn’t been delivered.
‘We’ll deal with those calls very robustly to people that perhaps think it’s funny.
‘Seeing that 50 per cent of our calls are not genuine emergencies distracts the call handler’s ability to service people that may be in immediate crises, experiencing a crime in progress, seeing suspicious activity, or where someone’s life may have been at risk.
‘Only call 999 if there is a danger to life, a crime is happening at that time or has just happened, you have immediate concerns for your safety, or you see something suspicious that needs immediate attention.’
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