'˜Use 999 responsibly' plea after staff receive calls to book a taxi and find out when car insurance expires

Nottinghamshire Police officers have a range of '˜powers' that are used to help keep the public safe '“ unfortunately for one 999 caller, most of the time officers don't have the power to know why they may have had a power cut.
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In the past few week, Nottinghamshire Police’s 999 call handlers have taken calls from people who were asking staff to book them a taxi, give advice on issues with rats in their property, talk to them about lost property, let them know about train timetables and even find out when their car insurance was due to expire.

These calls to emergency 999 call handlers take the dedicated team away from dealing with genuine emergencies, meaning they can’t be at the end of the phone when people really do need them most.

Police are urging residents to 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.

Police are urging residents to think before dialling 999.Police are urging residents to think before dialling 999.
Police are urging residents to think before dialling 999.

For all other non-emergency policing matters, you can call 101 or visit the Advice Centre on 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 the 999 emergency number when it’s anything less than an emergency, you can help to ensure the force’s emergency call handlers team can be on-hand for when people really do need them.

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