0845 for the POLICE

BexTech

Our police force have had an 0845 number for many years, however we have continued to use the 0121 number.

Contains_Mild_Peril

GIRLPOWER wrote:

The force where I live changed to 0845 followed by easy to remember no. and one of the reasons was so everyone would know and get used to what number to ring.

I took 999 calls for years and most of them were not life and death then you had to give out the local number because the only reason they rang 999 was they did not know which number to ring.

It did work by reducing the number of none emg. 999 calls.

Couldn't they buy an easy-to-remember geographical number, in the same way as businesses (e.g. taxis etc) often do?

bbb_uk

Contains_Mild_Peril wrote:

Couldn't they buy an easy-to-remember geographical number, in the same way as businesses (e.g. taxis etc) often do?

One of the police forces (can't remember which one) already had an easy to remember geographical number anyhow but still switched to an 0845.

The reason is not for an easy to remember number if you ask me. Its for other reasons - maybe the stats, etc that are available via these numbers and the government is very big on stats for everything (or nearly everything) these days.

Has anyone actually rung an 0845 for a police force? Does it go straight through to switchboard or do you get choices of which dept you would like, etc?

Plasticman

bbb_uk wrote:

One of the police forces (can't remember which one) already had an easy to remember geographical number anyhow but still switched to an 0845.

The reason is not for an easy to remember number if you ask me. Its for other reasons - maybe the stats, etc that are available via these numbers and the government is very big on stats for everything (or nearly everything) these days.

Has anyone actually rung an 0845 for a police force? Does it go straight through to switchboard or do you get choices of which dept you would like, etc?

Depends on where you live, they are all different. In my area it gives you the option to put in an extension number for the person you want if you know it, otherwise it puts you through to the switchboard. I'm fairly sure that in the early days of a police 0845 number in my area it went straight through to the switchboard.

dean2230

All Police Forces and police stations have geographical numbers.

Even so there is still huge pressure on the 999 system imagine an accident on the motor way 20 years ago it would have taken the time to get to the emergency phone on the hard shoulder perhaps 10 minutes to get a response, these days with mobiles a similar accident may get 100 calls from mobiles via 999 all having to be answered in 15 seconds regardless that they all relate to the same thing.

The general public very rarely ring the local station unless someone is locked up there or they have lost property generally the 999 system is the route used.

some forces including the one where i live have an 0845 number and have for about 5 years now it us used for all non emergency calls it is answered promtly 24 hours a day and routes everyone via a switchboard to where they need to go.

In a nutshell it is not a money making gimic but Police Forces however large cover local areas with individual stations it makes complete sense to have a central contact number that you ring to be dealt with for anything other than 999 calls in any area covered by a Force.

greytroot

if it is not a gimmick to make money why is it 0845 why not 998 or any other simplified number. or 0800 thepolice. if the 999 system operators can not take the volume of calls then employ more, or use call centres.

DonnyDave

It has been mentioned on Say no to 0870 recently that the police use O2 Airwave service (different from the normal O2 network). They have apparently barred 084/087 numbers so that they don't run up a huge bill!

More on this here.

1882

As a 999 telephone operator (the one who puts callers through to Fire, Police, Ambulance etc.) I know how many time wasters use that number when there is no emergency just because it's free. If I find out from the caller it isn't an emergency they don't get any further of course and 99% of the time the Emergency Service gives them hell and another no. to call if they do go through.

It would amaze you how small the small percentage who do have a genuine emergency when they call 999 or 112 (the Europe wide emegency no. which many dial instead of 118 directory ones).

Many just give up if it means spending 10p on a 101 call or ordinary rates for police stations. The services would be absolutely swamped with calls if stations were 0800 ones.

Contains_Mild_Peril

I tried ringing an 0845 police number when I was away from home, to enquire whether an item of lost property had been handed in at the local station (whose number I could not find - it seems to be a secret). Though I got to speak to a human bring fairly quickly, she said she'd transfer my call to the appropriate department, which then kept me waiting for about 20 minutes then cut me off before anyone answered. :mad:

amboy

My local police did the same, one day I telephoned one of my BTL houses to speak to the tenants.

The phone was answered by the police !!

IT later transpired that my tenants did not take the line on from BT so the number was somehow now given to the police.

I had tries previously for ages to get the geo number with no success )