Emergency calls

[laurence2]

Just when we thought it could'nt get any worse, The Goverment are going to propose that the public be charged 10p to ring the police to report in the goverments eyes minor crimes, ie drugs offences/Non emergency calls etc.

What a way to combat crime?

Now who says crime dose'nt pay.

[bob57]

it is only to free the 999 operator from time wasted calls and who's going to complain about 10p when you'd be helping your community to get rid of the filth on our streets

[madein1978]

I'm afraid the government view crimes such as burglary, theft, vandalism and other blights on society as minor, they seem oblivious to the stress and upset that is caused by crimes such as these when they happen. When you have trouble with neds and the like outside your house pestering you, the Police certainly are not interested, we had to move because the police would not help us with our ned problem, it got so out of hand. Crime like this is always wrongly belittled, the police are too busy nabbing people for doing 37MPH on a deserted main road at 1 o'clock in the morning to be bothered sorting real crimes! I'm afraid charging 10p to report a crime is precisely the kind of contempt for the people that empowered them I've come to expect from Blairs government.

[marshman]

If when ever one of them,ie;politicians,royalty ect. get burgled,vandalised ect,amazing how then suddenly the streets are teeming with police and it is no longer treated as "a minor crime"

[gary baldy]

They will be charging a call out fee before long - unless there is a wizzy car chase involved then half the local constabulary will be out in force and the helicopter will be up costing �750 a minute.
Perhaps all the 10p's should go into the fund for house breakers who have been injured whilst climbing through windows or shot by angry farmers.

[sandbach99]

Another stealth tax.

What is the point of ringing basically a call centre to report something that is happening at the time, for this bored person to decide they had better tell the police, then the police to decide if they have the manpower to attend. By this time the criminal could be miles away.

Dial 999 tell them you thought you saw a gun or knife, can always be mistaken.

If there are too many calls get more operators in.
I have only dialled 999 once this was when I was told to by my local hospital. My mother was taken ill late at night, the doctor requested an ambulance, after over an hour at 1 am I rang the hospital to ask how much longer I would have to wait only to be told dial 999 and ask them. During the call the operator said I should not have dialled 999 to which I said I know but the hospital told me to. The operator was stunned. yes a wrong 999 call but what else could I do?

[bill barlow]

It will certainly help to "cut" the crime rate which is what the Government want. People are not going to sit in a call centre queue for 30 minutes at 10p a minute to report a crime they know the police will do nothing about.

Just for the record, the number owner ( ie the Government ) will earn 3.5p per minute from these calls. So yes crime does pay.

[Grunty]

gary baldy - I'm sure you were joking, but I can tell a couple of true stories to illustrate your second paragraph.

[El D]

Fine - I will pay 10p a call and stop paying taxes. I will not pay both, or am I being picky?

[sukkie]

I think this country is slowly turning into a third world dictatorship where laws apply only to the few. People are also not going to pay their hard earned money to report a crime, so it will just not get reported, so the situation will now worsen but the police will look good as their statistics will improve by default.

[joko]

trouble is many people will just dial 999 to report minor things, in order to save themselves a few pence, thereby clogging the system!

they should introduce another number like 888 or something for non emergencies

[ludwig]

10p now rising to �1 in a couple of years once people have got used to the concept of being taxed for being a victim of crime. What a nice little earner.

[Trojanfarce]

I've not fully read all posts on this but seeing as my other half has been involved with this new initiative (The Single Non Emergency Number) I can say that the 10p charge will only apply while the pilot is being carried out and assessed. Once SNEN goes natiowide, the call will be free. I believe that there are 6 sites throughout the UK trhat are piloting this and it's not just about minor crimes and it's not solely being driven by the police. In fact the main driving forces behind this are the councils. They are providing the call centre staff with support and expertise from the police forces. My other half is a police controller and she's been saying for years that, with the amount of 'there's rubbish in my road' and 'kids are making a noise outside my house' type calls that they receive, something like this really needed to be done.

[joko]

so why charge us for the pilot?

[Trojanfarce]

I'll see if I can find out

[Trojanfarce]

joko, from what I've been able to find out, the charge for the pilots are to go some way towards discouraging those people outside the pilot areas from calling in with the non emergency-type calls as the service won't be available in their area (i.e. someone calling the 101 number in say, Swansea and the pilot is for Cardiff). I know that this doesn't fully explain it, but it's a Home Office initiative, they're providing the bulk of the funding (I guess that means you and I) and the councils will then be running it as they see fit.