North Yorkshire Police has reported exceptional performance in managing emergency calls, with figures showing that 999 calls are now being answered in an average of just three seconds
This level of performance places the force among the strongest performers in the country.
Deputy Chief Constable Scott Bisset attributed the success to the commitment of staff, especially following a busy summer period.
DCC Bisset confirmed the robust performance, noting the considerable improvement compared to previous years:
“Over the summer when it was incredibly busy for policing nationally, every force in this region saw an increase in demand of about 16% that our ability to pick up 999 calls in in over 90% of the time was maintained even through that period. So that's very pleasing.
It's a real reflection of the hard work commitment of our colleagues in the force control room.
The average answer time now is 3 seconds. Now if you gone back 2 or 3 years, you would have seen that be in excess of 12, 13, 14 seconds.
So this is some of the strongest performance in the country now. It certainly gets us in the top 10 of forces and we're very content that it'll be maintained.”
The latest official data shows the estimated average answer time for 999 calls as three seconds, with a median time of one second. Compliance with the 999 Service Level Agreement (SLA) remains high and above the national target.
While emergency calls are handled rapidly, the non-emergency 101 line experienced longer waiting times, particularly during the summer. DCC Bisset explained that this is a natural consequence of the force control room prioritising the most urgent 999 demands:
“For September we were just under the 3 minute mark in the summit it was higher than that and that's essentially a product of us prioritizing 999 emergency calls over the less urgent 101 that naturally happens within force control rooms just because of the level of demand and we will always prioritize the most urgent.
But for September there's some good performance and actually the third lowest month over the last 12”
For September 2025, the average 101 answer time was 2 minutes and 52 seconds. Overall, the average 101 answer time is continuing to fall, achieving a 1 minute 14 second reduction in 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.
Advice on When to Call 101
To help residents contact the police using the 101 number more efficiently, DCC Bisset offered advice on when the non-emergency lines tend to be quieter:
“We tend to be a bit quieter at weekends, which is the reverse of 999.
So if people were to ring on a weekend, then less people are ringing on weekends rather than weekdays.
And we tend to be quieter after 6:00 at night with a really noticeable drop off at about 9.
So if you were going to ring 101 and have the highest chance of speaking to somebody in the shortest time, you would ring after 6:00 on a Saturday and a Sunday.”
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