Police see drop in emergency calls on New Years Eve

Police officers have thanked the public for using the emergency number more responsibly on New Years Eve after Greater Manchester Police’s call handlers dealt with more than 700 fewer 999 calls than in 2007.

The overall number of calls received by GMP also dropped by 2,131 compared to New Years Eve the previous year.

“This is the busiest night of the year for us and in anticipation of this, we issued an appeal for people to only dial 999 in an emergency where there is threat to life and property", said Chief Superintendent of Operations Communication Branch, Greater Manchester Police, Andy Lang.

“The fact that the number of 999 calls we received fell on New Years Eve, suggests that some people did take our message on board and did not abuse this number.”

However, police say there is still work to be done as between midnight and 6am on New Years Day, of the 2,427 999 calls GMP received, only 25 per cent turned out to be genuine emergencies.

Some of the frustrating calls received by GMP’s call handlers on New Years Eve included requests for taxis and lifts home.

Ch Supt Lang continued: “It is crucial that our call handlers are allowed to focus their attention and resources on urgent calls where people actually need help from the emergency services.

“I don’t want someone to call 999 and be delayed because we are dealing with a caller reporting something that is not an emergency or, worse still, that is completely ridiculous and a deliberate joke.

“I would like to stress again that people should only dial 999 in an emergency and where there is threat to life or a crime in progress. For all other non-urgent enquiries, the public need to ring our general enquiries number: 0161 872 5050.”