Over a Third of Calls to the North Yorkshire Police 101 Line Abandoned

Friday, 2 June 2023 06:00

By Matthew Pells

North Yorkshire Police say they are making improvements to the time it takes them to answer phone calls.

The latest figures show that over a third of calls to the non emergency 101 line are not completed with people hanging up.

Assistant Chief Constable, Elliot Foskett, says the call abandonment figures aren't acceptable and says they are currently training more call handlers.

We reported last month how some local councillors are seeing an increase in people reporting incidents to them because residents are unable to get through to the police 101 line.

Town Councillors in Filey say residents are contacting them to report incidents of anti-social behaviour in the town because they cant get through to the police.

North Yorkshire Police say such reports should be made to their 101 line.

But Filey Councillor Karen Hubbard, says residents are telling her that doesn't work.

Figures for April this year show that there were 16,939 calls made to the 101 line in North Yorkshire, an increase of 1,567 (10%) on the month before.

The average wait time for a call to be answered was 5 minutes and 27 seconds and the long wait times resulted in 34% of the calls being abandoned.

Assistant Chief Constable Elliot Foskett says the latest call data is not good enough.

North Yorkshire Police says it sees an uplift in calls during the spring and summer. It has been working for several months to recruit additional call handlers and has a further cohort expected to complete training this month and be on active deployment in the control room from July.