101 response times
Discussion
Good luck! I've only ever called them twice and gave up both times without speaking to them
The first time was when I saw this fella trotting down the road ... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/wo...
The first time was when I saw this fella trotting down the road ... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/wo...
Edited by twing on Friday 4th November 12:47
What are you trying to report/ get info on?
999 is an option for EMERGENCY use.
101 is for non urgent/ admin type calls.
When I worked taking calls we had queues for incoming calls. Monday morning was busy. Friday pm was busy.
An escaped Wolf? I’d class that as 999 due to it being a WILD animal potentially dangerous. I once took a call for a kangaroo on the road. An escaped wallaby from a wildlife park. Treated similar to sheep etc on the road.
We had a 10 second gap between finishing a call and the next coming through. Continuous calls, each being unique. Some 101 were extremely urgent and upgraded to immediate response. We had calls from other agencies basically passing the buck for us to respond. Social Services requesting welfare checks that they didn’t want to do ( save money on their budget). Police cars used to ferry injured people to A&E then made to wait there for victimto be seen ( huge argument by our Inspector on those!)
In 8 years I did the job we were only fully manned for a single 6 month period after an HR manager came in to assess. Getting time off was difficult. I insisted on pre-booking 3 days off for my daughter’s wedding a year in advance. Replies were non committal to say the least. I worked 7 Christmas Days out of 8.
Budget cutbacks mean staff cutbacks. New staff needed several months to gain experience for the majority of call types to deal with them properly. Add in the , thankfully, rarer critical ones like suicide call, terrorist, distressed people.
999 is an option for EMERGENCY use.
101 is for non urgent/ admin type calls.
When I worked taking calls we had queues for incoming calls. Monday morning was busy. Friday pm was busy.
An escaped Wolf? I’d class that as 999 due to it being a WILD animal potentially dangerous. I once took a call for a kangaroo on the road. An escaped wallaby from a wildlife park. Treated similar to sheep etc on the road.
We had a 10 second gap between finishing a call and the next coming through. Continuous calls, each being unique. Some 101 were extremely urgent and upgraded to immediate response. We had calls from other agencies basically passing the buck for us to respond. Social Services requesting welfare checks that they didn’t want to do ( save money on their budget). Police cars used to ferry injured people to A&E then made to wait there for victimto be seen ( huge argument by our Inspector on those!)
In 8 years I did the job we were only fully manned for a single 6 month period after an HR manager came in to assess. Getting time off was difficult. I insisted on pre-booking 3 days off for my daughter’s wedding a year in advance. Replies were non committal to say the least. I worked 7 Christmas Days out of 8.
Budget cutbacks mean staff cutbacks. New staff needed several months to gain experience for the majority of call types to deal with them properly. Add in the , thankfully, rarer critical ones like suicide call, terrorist, distressed people.
Online is ok for admin non critical or simple admin. Someone still has to check the posts. We tried voicemail as an option but stopped it. Urgent calls were being delayed due to time lags between receipt and listening. There was a danger that the caller expected the voicemail to be heard immediately, by-passing the queue when the call could have been in the 999 category, as 101 calls could be.
Nostalgia time here.
I used to be a milkman. If I saw anything iffy I would nip down to the local police station (small town) and odds on there would be someone there. If there wasn’t they’d be out on patrol and I’d come across them sooner or later. Of course it wasn’t always so but enough for me to make the effort.
Latterly before I retired the police station was days only and one police patrol was covering about 4 towns.
I tried 101 a couple of times. First you got a multiple choice, do you want to report lost property or report an incident. Then you got the wait with the recorded message saying there is a high call volume. Yeah 2 am on a midweek morning everyone is calling 101. Then of course the incident room is 40 miles away and you could be talking to someone who hasn’t a clue where you are
So what did I do…gave up of course. If I saw something worth reporting I didn’t bother.
Not my problem.
Drawweight said:
Nostalgia time here.
I used to be a milkman. If I saw anything iffy I would nip down to the local police station (small town) and odds on there would be someone there. If there wasn’t they’d be out on patrol and I’d come across them sooner or later. Of course it wasn’t always so but enough for me to make the effort.
Latterly before I retired the police station was days only and one police patrol was covering about 4 towns.
I tried 101 a couple of times. First you got a multiple choice, do you want to report lost property or report an incident. Then you got the wait with the recorded message saying there is a high call volume. Yeah 2 am on a midweek morning everyone is calling 101. Then of course the incident room is 40 miles away and you could be talking to someone who hasn’t a clue where you are
So what did I do…gave up of course. If I saw something worth reporting I didn’t bother.
Not my problem.
Our milkies used to do the same on nights. If nobody in the nick there was a phone out front straight through to HQ. Same with window cleaners - they'd be out and about from around 5amI used to be a milkman. If I saw anything iffy I would nip down to the local police station (small town) and odds on there would be someone there. If there wasn’t they’d be out on patrol and I’d come across them sooner or later. Of course it wasn’t always so but enough for me to make the effort.
Latterly before I retired the police station was days only and one police patrol was covering about 4 towns.
I tried 101 a couple of times. First you got a multiple choice, do you want to report lost property or report an incident. Then you got the wait with the recorded message saying there is a high call volume. Yeah 2 am on a midweek morning everyone is calling 101. Then of course the incident room is 40 miles away and you could be talking to someone who hasn’t a clue where you are
So what did I do…gave up of course. If I saw something worth reporting I didn’t bother.
Not my problem.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
The police are seen as the “go-to” for everything. Calls about things that are nothing to do with policing. People trying it on to jump the queue, “I pay your wages” often used for wantingpolice to do something. Lots of abuse when told the reality of not police business.
Examples.......
Highways Dept asking for police to and collect money from a farmer for their cleaning his mud off the road. “We don’t havestaff to do it” was the reason.
Friday pm at about 16.00 hrs.....Social Services requesting attendance for a welfare check. They had discussed it in the morning at meetings but left it until staff were due to finish work so wanted police to pick it up. Saving their costs versus budget.
Neighbour disputes over boundaries. Police expected to sort it out instead of Land Registry, Planning etc.
Hoax calls.
Using 999 instead of 101.
999 calls.
We had dedicated 999 call takers for those only, no 101 going to them. We swopped that round so we all had periods doing it. If a lot were coming in and all our lines busy they diverted to neighbouring Force areas. I took calls from South Wales area a few times when they were at limits due to call volumes.
The police are seen as the “go-to” for everything. Calls about things that are nothing to do with policing. People trying it on to jump the queue, “I pay your wages” often used for wantingpolice to do something. Lots of abuse when told the reality of not police business.
Examples.......
Highways Dept asking for police to and collect money from a farmer for their cleaning his mud off the road. “We don’t havestaff to do it” was the reason.
Friday pm at about 16.00 hrs.....Social Services requesting attendance for a welfare check. They had discussed it in the morning at meetings but left it until staff were due to finish work so wanted police to pick it up. Saving their costs versus budget.
Neighbour disputes over boundaries. Police expected to sort it out instead of Land Registry, Planning etc.
Hoax calls.
Using 999 instead of 101.
999 calls.
We had dedicated 999 call takers for those only, no 101 going to them. We swopped that round so we all had periods doing it. If a lot were coming in and all our lines busy they diverted to neighbouring Force areas. I took calls from South Wales area a few times when they were at limits due to call volumes.
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