By Jo Best, 8 March 2006 12:50
NEWS
The government has today taken the wraps off a 'single non-emergency number' (SNEN) for concerned citizens to report petty crime or nuisance behaviour.
The 101 number will go live in some areas of the country this summer and is expected to roll out across the UK during 2008.
People will be asked to call 101 instead of 999 to report non-serious crimes including littering, noisy neighbours, vandalism, graffiti, anti-social behaviour and abandoned cars. According to the government, 10 million calls are made to the 999 emergency services number every year, of which 70 per cent are not classed as serious crime.
According to Home Office minister Hazel Blears, the 101 number is intended to "complement rather than duplicate" the emergency services number. Callers ringing the 101 number to register a complaint will speak to a SNEN operator who will then either advise them on how to deal with the problem or route them to the appropriate authority or the emergency services.
Callers will be given a reference number for their complaint and will be informed of its progress through the system. They will also subsequently be provided with details of their local authority's performance in dealing with 101 calls.
The Home Office said it expects call volumes to local authorities and local police forces to rise by 25 per cent as callers switch from using 999 to 101. The new number won't, however, help cut the amount of mobile calls accidentally placed to the emergency services when users fail to lock their keypads. Mobile misdials make up a "high proportion" of non-emergency calls made to 999, Blears said today.
There will be one major difference between 999 and 101 - unlike the well-known emergency services number, callers using 101 will be charged 10p per call from both landlines and mobiles.
Blears said that a small charge would deter individuals from abusing the service. The minister added that some users would be able to save money by calling 101 - when compared to some councils' 0845 numbers.
The 10p charge will be reviewed after the first of three stages of rollouts. The initial wave will see 101 go live in Cardiff, Leicester City and Rutland County, Sheffield and the Hampshire Police force and Northumbria Police force areas.
Cable and Wireless announced earlier this week that it had won the contract to provide the 101 service.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. D Worden
I do not think a new number and a 10P charge will stop nuisance and none urgent calls. Instead I think the police should attend these calls and when they get there arrest and prosecute these people only then will the message hit home.
2. Simon Cox
I think its a great idea. I wonder how many calls are NOT made because people do not want to bother the 999 service with petty crimes. My guess is a lot more people will be calling in.
The only question is - what will happen to the 101 calls once they have been registered?
3. anonymous
If the police actually answered their non-999 numbers then people might stop using 999.
I had reason recently to call my local police, being a good citizen I chose not to use 999 because I deemed the issue though important, not important enough to call 999.
After hanging on for 3-4 minutes my call was answered by an operator, they then passed me onto the control centre, I then proceeded to spend 10 minutes waiting for the control centre to answer the call.
I reinitiated the call: 3-4 minutes to get an operator, explained that I had been hanging on for 10minutes and was told the control centre was busy and so was put through. This time I persisted and had to wait 21 minutes before the control centre picked up the phone.
If this is common, it is no wonder people use 999 for non-urgent calls. I know I certainly felt like doing it.
4. anonymous
Basically I think it's a good idea, if not essential to take recording of crime from the police.
Yesterday, I witnessed what I viewed as criminal damage to almost all body panels were damaged on a vehicle being 'taken away' on a 'recovery vehicle'.
It took 6 hours to actually get through to the police on the number given on their web site.
That period including a 20 minute session of continually ringing that number without having the call answered.
When I did get through, I was on hold for over an hour and 15 minutes.
and having said what I was calling about, after a few questions, I was then told that they were too busy to continue with my call.
I have reported this to my MP on the basis that not answering calls reduces the number of reported crimes, and stops people bothering to try and report crimes, thus distorting, or is it perverting the crime statistics reported to parliment
Should I have bothered to keep trying to report the incident.
And - 10 pence for a call would be cheap, but why should I have to pay to help the police at all.
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Perhaps we should go back to the old days when your insurance company paid for the 'police', so where poor defence of property and persons resulted in an increase in costs to the insurers, the benefit of using available finance to improve policing was of immediate concern to those managing the collected 'premium' money.
5. anonymous
You can still dial 999 on your mibile even if the keypad is locked. I can understand why this is, but if it causing that many problems, then maybe the mobile phone companies should be asked to remove this function.
6. anonymous
If Mobile misdials make up a "high proportion" of non-emergency calls made to 999 & 999 is not changing the number, how will the number 101 change the misdials to 999?
Surely spending tax payers money on more call centres, people etc & redesigning the wheel for " Non Emergencies" is dangerous.
7. anonymous
i dont beleve that people will pay 10p for the 101 service, when they can call 999 for free. i try not to use 999 unless i really have to, but trying to get through to my local force is a nightmare. I called the switchboard number and was waiting 2mins tops, then they transfered me to the local force call center where i was left on hold and waiting for well over 35mins, its rediculous, if they dont want people calling 999 for petty things, they need to employ more staff to work the call center so that your call is answered quicker.