West Yorkshire Police have recorded one of the busiest 24 hours the Force has ever experienced in their Customer Contact Centre.
There were 5,140 total contacts from members of the public into the Contact Centre from 6am on Friday, 17 June to 6am on Saturday, 18 June, making it the third highest 24 hours for contacts ever. The contacts included people phoning on 999 and 101 and using 101 Live Chat, email and online reporting services.
Tom Donohoe, Customer Contact Centre Manager, said:
“This was completely unprecedented and more in line with what we might expect to see on New Year’s Eve, which tends to be our busiest day of the year. On an average New Year’s Eve we take around 1,850 999 calls and during this 24 hour period we took 2,007.
“I want to make it absolutely clear that we would never dissuade anyone from contacting the police for legitimate police business but when contact levels are that high, we need to ensure that people are contacting us for the right reasons. We are asking people to please help us to help you.
“On a daily basis we are still receiving nuisance calls, calls that should be for other services such as local authorities and the RSPCA, and calls that can be dealt with online.
“While online contacts do still count within our total contacts, they tend to be quicker for both the member of the public and the Customer Contact Centre team to deal with.
“Please always call 999 in an emergency, where there is a threat to life or crime in progress, but consider looking online before phoning the police for other matters.”
Members of the public can have a two-way conversation with a member of the Customer Contact Centre team by using the 101 Live Chat system on the West Yorkshire Police website. The benefit of using this system is that a Contact Centre Agent can provide assistance to a number of people at the same time, rather than being engaged on one phone line, and for quick queries, it is an ideal way to beat the queue. It is also popular with the deaf community or those members of the public who need a little time to compose their thoughts.
For additional information on West Yorkshire Police visit their Website
