Avon and Somerset Police has this week changed its non-emergency number to 101.
It should be used for reporting a crime that does not need an urgent response, contacting a local officer, getting crime prevention advice, making an appointment with a police officer, telling police about local policing issues, or any other non-emergency.
The force hopes the introduction of the new, simple number will reduce the number of calls to 999.
Currently, around one in four 999 calls to Avon and Somerset Police are genuine emergencies and one in four calls are inappropriate. The rest are calls needing police assistance that could have been dealt with by the non-emergency number.
Assistant Chief Constable Anthony Bangham said: “We want our communities to be able to contact us quickly and easily when they need us. Using the correct number will help us respond to our calls in the most effective way.”
“999 is well-established as the number to call in an emergency but in the past every police force has had a different phone number for non-emergencies. The introduction of 101 provides a simple and easy to remember number for the public to contact us.”
Calls to 101 will cost 15p per call, irrespective of how long that call may last and applies to landlines and mobile phones. People who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired will be able to textphone 18001 101.
999 will still be used in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, when there is danger to life or when violence is being used or threatened.
