By Humberside Police slowest force in the country to answer emergency calls
New Home Office data has revealed just how fast police forces across the country answer emergency phone calls.
Forces have the target set to answer 90% of all emergency phone calls within ten seconds of the call being made, but very few forces are hitting this target.
According to data, Humberside Police has been ranked one of the worst in the country, answering only 2% of emergency calls within ten seconds.
In the first-ever batch of national data, it was revealed that nearly three million ‘life and death’ calls a year are being made to wait longer than ten seconds for help.
Only one force in the country, Avon and Somerset, managed to hit the national target.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said the data would help to “drive up standards” by identifying forces where “vital improvements” need to be made.
She said: “Calling 999 can literally be a matter of life and death. The public deserves to know that their local police force will be at the end of the phone, ready to leap into action at seconds’ notice to protect them from harm.”
The data, based on 5.2 million 999 calls to forces across the UK between November 2021 and April 2022, showed that 29 per cent of them were not answered within the target time of 10 seconds.
We spoke to one local who felt their experience with Humberside Police’s emergency response team was “appalling”.
The source told Gi Media how they had been filming in Grimsby Town Centre for work when they were approached by an unknown man and threatened with violence.
The man then attempted to steal the filming equipment, when the victim began to walk away, the man became even more agitated and made threats to kill.
The victim added that their colleague had rung Humberside Police, who were not sending officers to the scene.
They said: “It took a good few minutes for us to get through to someone, only for no officers to be sent down to us. I was so scared and shaken but they didn’t seem to care.”
It wasn’t until nearly a month after the incident that officers contacted the victim for a statement on the matter.
They added how police then asked the colleague to back to the bus stop and take a ‘sly’ picture of the suspect.
“Their response was completely shocking and not the sort of response you’d expect from a police force – but I’m not really surprised considering the lack of support we received from them after the incident,” they added.
New data conducted by the BBC has also found that officers are now 28% slower to attend the most serious emergencies after receiving 999 calls than six years ago.
The study found that officers are taking three minutes longer to attend serious incidents than six years ago, leaving many victims dismayed and frightened.
Humberside Police have been contacted for a statement regarding their emergency call response times.
