Less Urgent than 999

June 1, 2009 No Comments

 ‘If it’s not an emergency but you want to speak to the Police call 101’ is the message being given out today by South Wales Police.

From today people living in Wales can report all non emergencies to South Wales Police by dialling 101. The calls will be answered by dedicated call handlers working in the same force area as the calls are made.

This means that Wales is the first nation to have just two contact numbers for the Police, 999 in an emergency and 101 when it isn’t urgent.

101 does not replace 999, but can be used to report things that do not require an emergency response from the Police.

You can call 101 to report instances of anti social behaviour, noisy neighbours or loud parties taking place in your street as well as reporting menacing driving behaviour (when it is safe and legal to use a mobile phone).

“The aim of 101 is to provide a single number that people living in Wales can use to report low level annoyances and anti social behaviour,” said Assistant Chief Constable Nick Croft.

“It will run alongside 999 and complement the emergency service already provided by each force. The opportunity came up to use 101 as a single non emergency number for the whole of Wales after the Home Office pilot scheme came to an end.”

Andy Edwards, Deputy Chief Constable for the All Wales Collaboration Programme agreed, “Each force recognised the potential for using the number for the whole of Wales and the collaborative project was born. It has taken a lot of hard work and effort to ensure this project has worked, but each force has pulled out all the stops to make sure it happens.

“The only area in Wales where the pilot 101 number ran was Cardiff. From the excellent results over the two years we recognised the opportunity for rolling it out further and grasped it with both hands. 101 Cymru is slightly different as it is just the Police using the number rather than public services working together. However, we are not ruling anything out for the future.”

ACC Nick Croft: “We think it is a step towards making our services more accessible for our residents. It is an easy number to remember, it is available 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, you get put through to your local Police Force and your call will cost 10 pence from both land lines and mobiles”.

People should still call 999 if:

· violence is being used or threatened;

· there is danger to life;

· a crime is in progress or offenders carrying out a crime have recently been disturbed;

· there has been a road accident where people are injured, or there has been a non-injury accident where traffic is affected.

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