999: The cranks, the pranks - and the real emergencies

The call centre at Thames Valley Police HQ, Kidlington

From an early age, it is drummed into us to dial 999 in an emergency. If we need urgent medical aid, help from the police or the fire service - the services are there waiting at the end of the phone.

Switchboard operators are long-suffering, and take an endless supply of patience to work each morning.

They deal with an array of queries from: the woman who called the police to say her washing machine was blocked and could someone call out an engineer for her, to the scores of people who contact the police to check the time of the next bus into the city centre.

In addition to these trivial requests, 999 is often inadvertently dialled from mobile phones, causing an increasing number of problems for the emergency services' switchboards.

Public expectation of the service provided by police is high. However, with the annual rise in the number of 999 calls made nationally - coupled with the recruitment crisis which has hit Thames Valley Police - it is inevitable calls must be dealt with according to priority.

Last week, Lincolnshire couple Derek and Hilary Beaumont, who were holidaying in Oxfordshire, had their caravan and its contents stolen from Hagbourne Mill Farm, near Didcot.

The couple had been out sight-seeing for the day. When they returned and discovered the theft they called 999.

But police told them it wasn't an emergency and they should contact the crime unit at Blewbury police station.

The couple were left feeling shocked that the call was not considered 'immediate response'. The police say the call was handled with an "adequate degree of urgency".

Thames Valley Police has five grades of response to calls:

**immediate - within 15 minutes

**priority - within 45 minutes

**routine - within four hours

**by arrangement

**telephone resolution - when help or advice to a crime issue, often crime prevention, is given over the phone.

A call is classed as needing an immediate response if there is a threat to life, limb or public disorder, or if a crime is still in process and the criminal is still at the scene. In these situations timing is important.

Since April 1 Thames Valley has received 157,000 calls to the 999 service, and 90 per cent of that total were answered within ten seconds of the caller dialling. Last week, 8,500 calls were made on 999.

Control rooms Chief Insp Kevin Gale said: "My message is one of common sense. Of course, we don't want to stop people from calling us, but inappropriate calls prevent the emergency services providing an emergency or priority response.

"Before people call I'd like them to ask themselves if they are really calling about a police matter."

There are seven control rooms operating in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire but Thames Valley is preparing to open two new radio control rooms in Abingdon and Milton Keynes police stations.

At the same time, police enquiry centres will be opened on the Spires Business Park, in Kidlington - to handle calls from around Oxfordshire, and in Windsor - to deal with the other end of the force's region.

Each year Oxfordshire Fire Service renews its campaign to clamp-down on hoax calls or callers dialling 999 for non-emergency reasons.

Senior divisional officer Peter Owen-Smith, based at Rewley Road, Oxford, says: "Hoax calls are the bugbear of all fire services.

"If we answer a hoax call at one end of the city and then are called to a real emergency at the other end, lives could be put at risk. Where we identify a pattern of hoax calls we always tell the police.

"The bottom line is people who are not in an emergency situation should not call 999."

Oxfordshire Ambulance Service chiefs are encouraging people to think about alternatives rather than dialling 999 when they have a health problem.