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Calls Received (776A/22)

Request

  1. Please state the number of 999 calls received by your force’s control room in the last three months of 2022 (March, April and May). Please breakdown the number of calls by date.
  2. Please state the number of 101 calls received by your force’s control room in the last three months of 2022 (March, April and May). Please breakdown the number of calls by date.
  3. Please state the current waiting time targets for your force for: 999 calls and 101 calls
  4. Please state the number of 999 calls that breached your force’s waiting time targets. Please breakdown the number of calls by date.
  5. Please state the number of 101 calls that breached your force’s waiting time targets. Please breakdown the number of calls by date.
  6. Please state the number of 999 calls to your force’s control room that were first graded as emergency incidents, i.e. Grade 1. Please breakdown by date.
  7. Please state the number of 101 calls to your force’s control room that were first graded as emergency incidents, i.e. Grade 1. Please breakdown by date.

Response

Please find attached our response.

Like many forces across England and Wales, West Midlands Police is seeing record levels of demand from the public, which is continuing to grow.

Call handlers in West Midlands Police are working extremely hard to respond to record levels of demand from the public, which is continuing to grow. In April alone, we saw a 23% rise in 999 calls compared to April 2021, when the country was in lockdown, equating to an average of 2,301 999 calls a day. This demand has continued to increase. 

999 calls May 2022          82995 highest month on record

999 calls MTD 26/06        75102, predicted month end 89000 – so at record high levels (June 21 70000)

 101 call volumes also remain at a high level:

101 call May 2022            61511

101 calls MTD 26/06       51114, predicted month end 61000 – similar levels to last year

 People ring 999 in their time of need and they expect to be answered almost immediately and while in April we answered more than half of 999 calls within 10 seconds, on average people were waiting just over 30 seconds which is too long.  

 We are working hard to improve the experience for people who do need to call 999. This includes recruiting more staff to take calls. We’re also creating a dedicated team to deal with some of the most complex calls from vulnerable victims which can take much longer to deal with as we take important information from them there and then. The new team, who have had special training in dealing with such sensitive calls for help, will ensure victims get the right support, while enabling other staff to deal with other urgent calls. 

We’re still getting lots of calls to us which turn out to not be police matters or don’t require a police response. These put extra pressure put on call-handlers, who work tirelessly to provide the right support and advice in someone’s time of need. Our advice is always – if it’s not 999 then go online for advice, and the ability to Live Chat with our staff.

Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.

If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.

Attachments

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