From a missing kebab to a naked man at the scene of a car crash in Northallerton, these are just some of the calls Police received when they did their last Tweetathon at Christmas.
Now it’s back again! From 2pm on Friday (19 August 2022) to 2am on Saturday (20 August 2022) the force will tweet every call that comes into them during a 12-hour period via the North Yorkshire Police Twitter account @NYorksPolice with the hashtag #NYPfor12.
As anticipated, the force has seen exceptional high levels of demand during July and August. North Yorkshire Police handled 33,221 calls in total during July, 10,490 of which were ‘999’ emergency calls, which is not only the highest July volumes in history recorded for the force, but their highest month on record.
Several factors have led to this increase which include the easing of covid restrictions as well as the recent spike in good weather.
The county also sees a large influx of visitors on holiday in North Yorkshire during the summer months which factors in the increased calls to service.
Behind every 999 call, 101 call and online report in North Yorkshire is the same dedicated team of people handling those reports, 24 hours a day.
The team are based at the Force Control Room in York and are often described as the “Heroes in headsets.”
As well as dealing with members of the public, staff in the control room also deploy police officers and take control of incidents.
Superintendent Jason Dickson, Head of Customer Contact at North Yorkshire Police, said:
“The Tweetathon is always popular as it shows the public the variety of calls that our communications officers deal with daily.
“I hope that publicly highlighting the volume of incidents encourages people to think about the importance of only using 999 if it’s a genuine emergency.
This week, members of the public will be given an insight into the volume of calls that the force deals with during their summer Tweetathon event, including the amount of inappropriate, ‘pocket dials’, or misdirected calls.
Superintendent Dickson continued:
“It is not appropriate to ring 999 because your taxi hasn’t arrived or because you’ve got a complaint about a pizza you’ve bought from a takeaway after a night out, or because you can’t get hold of the service you need.
“We are an emergency service, and it is vital that we are able to respond to those who need us most.
“There are also a significant number of calls that come through to us unnecessarily where the caller should have directed their call to an alternative and more appropriate agency or service and not the police.
“We also receive many calls where the caller has accidently “pocket dialled” us or given their phone to a child who accidently calls our emergency number. In this instance, our Communications Officers must spend time calling the person back to check it not a genuine emergency. This means they are unavailable to answer incoming calls.
“But these nuisance or misdirected calls may stop us from getting help for a vulnerable person in need so all we would ask is that you think twice before picking up the phone and ringing the police on 999 if it is not an emergency.”
The last Tweetathon was held in December 2021 and showcased the usual variety of incidents that the force deals with during the festive period.
[tptn_list limit=3 daily=1 hour_range=1]
This week, in addition to dealing with the normal demand, North Yorkshire Police will deploy officers to York Racecourse for the annual Ebor racing festival.
The popular four-day event which is held from Wednesday to Sunday will sees thousands of visitors descend on York.
The increase of visitors coupled with the expected normal demand could make this Tweetathon one of the busiest that the force has ever seen.