What's the alternative to 999 to contact Police?

peterbaker

I am flabbergasted now.

I have just had a call to a 1212 police number terminated by the Control Room operative because, she said, I was being rude!

I had explained my dismay that she had tired of taking notes of my reported observations, and that she was going to get a Police Officer to call me later. She said it would be easier because people sometimes had difficulty relaying what they had seen. I said I was having no difficulty but maybe she was having difficulty writing it down. (She was expecting me to dictate a message). I agreed that it would probably be best to speak to a police officer because I had expected to be speaking to one in the first place. "I am sorry you feel that way" she said twice. I told her she would need my mobile number then. I gave it to her but stumbled on some of the digits and asked her to read it back to me. She refused on the basis that she thought she had got it first time. I said I did not think that was good communication and she told me that she was terminating the call because I was rude. Duh!

I had waited 5 minutes to be put through to "The Control Room".

This person told me, after I queried if I was talking to an outsourced service and not the police, that "We are the Control Room - I am not a police officer."

I was calling with information that might have assisted police with a serious incident. I expect someone will get around to calling me if they have my number down right.

What numbskull decided to man police control rooms with non-police officers?

cathy_3

police and ambulance are now serviced by civilian controllers   they are trained to take calls and pass the details to the police.
or paramedics and that is their job done usually.


however the fire brigade controllers have to undergo a 4 year training period   2 years as a probationer and the other 2 years still training,  dont confuse them with the other two controll rooms who dont have to do the same training at all

not that im saying they dont do a sterling Job,  mostly -- but I have recently had this conversation with the ambulance control room

hello   I have just driven past a lady lying out on the pavement  I couldnt stop as there was a lot of cars behind me and  I had to keep moving.

what street is she in


shes in   bloggs street  lying on the pavement

where is that??

ermm is this the inverness ambulance control room??

yes

well its in INverness

what roads does blogg st run off and into

I dont know


where are you now

smith st

can you go back and look at the streets that run off blogg st  

no

what number house is she lying outside of


i dont know


how old is she


I dont know


what is she wearing


I dont know   jeans and a shirt I think

what colour jeans


BLue

Is she lying at the bottom of the street or the top ?


OH FOR GODS SAKE   THERE IS ONLY ONE WOMAN LYING ON THE PAVEMENT IN BLOGG ST  JUST GO AND HELP HER WILL YOU

madam i am terminating this call as you are being uncivil and I dont have to take that

beeeeeeeeeeeeep


unbeleivable


but i was told they have a set script to stick to and must ask those questions so maybe i should have been more patient


dont worry though if you burst into flames you will be sorted out double fast by your fire brigade control room ;D ;D

peterbaker

Much as I thought, Madam !!!

PS I have had no call from them, and it rained this afternoon so the blood trail got washed away so I guess that's alright then - Fire Brigade hoses not needed now.

Savvy_Sue

Don't know if it would have helped in this case, but there are two other ways of contacting the police for non-emergencies in this area (Avon and Somerset). One is via the website, where there are various types of crime you can report or report information about. The other is if you know who your local beat officer is: they have a direct line. Chances are you'll get an answerphone but at least you know information is going to someone who cares about the clearup rate in your area. I presume if you don't know who it is you can still ask to be put through to the beat officer for x area.

I don't know if all forces have beat officers: they seem to go in and out of fashion, but it may be worth finding out.

16011996

yep, i had this problem couple of weeks ago, a cyclist had a fit and came off his bike. Rang the ambulance, they asked where he was, in what town, what was he wearing, what car i was driving had any one else been involved, did i need a fire engine, and then asked if he was breathing, hmmmmm not sure that was in the correct order somehow.

Leothecat

The whole thing is madness. I was driving home one evening and say a bloke viciously attack a young woman. It was about 12.30 am and no one else was around. I was too frightened to stop the car so I drove for about 50 yards, pulled over and called the police station (I know their number as it is only 1 digit different to my work number and we get their calls all the time). At this point I must add that I was parked about 20 yards from the police station and that the incident had taken place within sight of it.
Anyway, the phone rand and rang and was eventually answered by a man who took the all the details - time description, location, all my details etc. The then went on to tell me that he could not leave the station as it is only a skeleton staff there and that there were no patrol cars in the area!!!! I was disgusted - that poor woman! If I am honest, he was more interested in getting my details.
Unfortunately, I have no idea what happened. I did drive back about 5 mins later but they were no where to be seen.

16011996

thats awful. >:(

rushnowt

A year ago my daughter and her friends arrived at my house from school very distraught. An old asian guy had been outside of the school gates and been trying to touch and kiss the girls and they had run to my house being the nearest.
I rang the police immediately and they took all my details and asked me to keep the girls at my house until an officer was available.
We waited 30 minutes and no-one arrived, by now i was getting concerned that the girls parents would be worried. so i rang one of the mothers to explain what had happened, unfortunately i could not get hold of the other girls mother has the phone was continually engaged "obviously concerned her daughter was not yet home and was ringing around to find her"
The girls house was only 5 mins away so I decided to drive round and explain, I got the girls in the car and set off, we had to pass the school on the way, and suddenly the girls started screaming hystircally that the guy was still there,
I pulled over and rang the police to explain i was waiting for an officer to attend my house and went on to tell them the details, i explained that the guy was still outside the school and i had the girls with me now and they had all identified him.
I was asked to try to keep the guy there while the police attended.
I got out of the car and locked the car doors and went over to the guy and began chatting after about 10 minutes he noticed the girls in the car and tried to make a getaway, he began hitting me with a stick and as i made another call to the police asking for advice and someone to attend they continued to ask me to hold the suspect.
fortunately passers by had now come to my assistance and were surrounding the guy so that he could not get away I continued my conversation with the police for the whole of the 45 minutes we had to wait for an officer to attend all the time giving exact details of what was happening as the guy continued to swear and curse and hitting me with his stick.
the upshot of all this was that the police finally attended 45 minutes later and arrested him, he was taken into custody and charged with the offence and several others , it turns out the police had been looking for this guy for several months and there had been many allegations made against him, we were informed that we would be needed to appear when the case was brought to court.
he told the police that he was in his eighties but had no birth certificate (not sure if this is common in pakistan) and he was release pending his court appearance.
Unfortunately during this time he absconded the police believe back to Pakistan and so no charges were ever brought  >:(  ???  >:(

trafalgar_2

That's disgusting :-/

1 they took so long to help you and 2 why was he allowed bail in the first place ???

Disgraceful.......................you do everything you can and he gets away with it >:(

I hope all the girls are ok and manage to put this dreadful man behind them.

16011996

thats awful too. must admit, we had a drunk outside school with his privates hanging out, and called the police, they were there in a few minutes, and the bbloke was put in psych ward. not always so bad.

Dizzypole

The alternative for contacting the Police for non emergencies.
is 0845 6060606.

I work for the Police and have to say that in their defence the operators in the Control rooms are very well trained (in my Force any way). The rooms are manned by civilians and serving Police officers. They have a very stressful job and are fully accountable. Each call is recorded. If you have a complaint about the service you have received, write in and complain to the Police service that you had problems with. Give the time and date of the call and they should be able to track down the offending operator.

Dizzypole