North Yorkshire Police are answering 999 calls in an average of three seconds despite receiving nearly 7,000 more emergency calls this financial year.
Emergency police operators are handling thousands of extra calls this year, but response times remain well above national targets. Nearly 7,000 additional 999 calls have been made to North Yorkshire Police this financial year compared to the same period last year, pushing total demand significantly higher. Despite the surge, emergency callers are waiting an average of just three seconds for an answer, with 93.79 per cent of calls answered within the service level agreement, beating the 90 per cent national target.
Assistant Chief Constable Catherine Clarke said:
"999 does continue to increase, 6968 more calls this financial year to date compared to the same period last year. So it does present us with continued demand challenge. We're really really pleased that we've been able to sort of eek out efficiencies, really improve making sure that we're maintaining quality and answering time to really perform really well."
The longest wait time for a 999 call was six minutes, which occurred during a system outage for maintenance when calls were diverted to Humberside Police. Meanwhile, non-emergency callers using the 101 service are waiting an average of two minutes and 30 seconds for an answer. One caller experienced a maximum wait time of two hours and 15 minutes, which officials attributed to user error with the automated callback system.
Assistant Chief Constable Clarke said:
"Our average answer time for a 101 call is two minutes and 30 seconds. So we appreciate that our 80% in 5 minutes is our target. Of course, that wildly will fluctuate day of week and time of day. But our maximum weight time there was because we've looked into that so looks terrible, two hours 15 minutes. What actually happened there was the caller selected our Q Buster option. So our Q Buster option allows somebody to accept a call-back at the time that they would have reached the top of the queue. So they effectively hang up, we call them back. Unfortunately, on that occasion, the person selected the Q Buster but then didn't hang up."
Communities across the Coast Command Area are seeing a drop in anti-social behaviour, with incidents falling by 13.3 per cent, resulting in 102 fewer reports compared to the previous year. However, overall recorded crime across the county has increased slightly by 1.1 per cent, reaching 46,132 offences. Violence against the person is driving the increase, rising by 5.9 per cent to account for over 40 per cent of all recorded crime. Police officials say this is partly due to increased confidence in reporting harassment-type crimes.
Residents are experiencing fewer traditional volume crimes. Fraud offences have plummeted by 25.8 per cent, bicycle thefts are down 24.8 per cent, and vehicle offences have dropped by 16.2 per cent. Burglary has also seen a decline, with residential burglaries falling by 8.1 per cent and other burglaries down 15.3 per cent.
Victims of crime in North Yorkshire are seeing a higher rate of solved cases than the national average. The force's positive outcome rate stands at 16 per cent, compared to the national level of 14 per cent. Officers responding to immediate grade 999 calls are also exceeding the national target of 80 per cent, achieving 87.84 per cent compliance in urban areas and 81.44 per cent in rural locations.
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