Complaint about cocktail price just one of 571 calls Wiltshire Police received in one day
They gave the public a rare insight into their control room
A call complaining about the price of cocktails and a pocket dial from a nightclub are just some of the non-emergencies Wiltshire Police were asked about.
On Saturday (24th July), they gave their control room staff access to their social media accounts to give the public a unique look at what they face on a normal weekend.
From 7am until 10:30pm, they took 571 999 and 101 calls and responded to 425 logs through the course of the day.
Most of their phone calls were people in need, however some were not genuine 999 calls.
These include complaining about the price of cocktails at a pub, asking for the non-emergency number, a car parked in their space and a pocket dial from a nightclub.
Chief Insp Doug Downing who oversees the control room said:
"We left it to the staff. They had control over the social media accounts to give a real insight into our demand over 24 hours.
"We still want to provide that critical service to people who are vulnerable, need our support and need our intervention, but we're trying to tackle that unnecessary demand by asking, could people get what they need online.
"It's a snapshot of what our call handlers deal with. We have a brilliant team and very talented individuals that demonstrate vast amounts of perseverance and patience every week, 24 hours a day.
"Hopefully we showed the public the fantastic work they do whilst reminding people of the services they can access online.
“We will always be here for you when you need us the most and don’t want to discourage people in a genuine emergency situation from calling 999. However, if we have made people realise, if they are not in an emergency, where they should go, then it has been a successful exercise.”
The purpose was to show the public the demand the control room faces on a typical Saturday as part of their Click or Call campaign.
Throughout the day, videos and tweets were put out about what the team were facing.
The force say they will continue sharing their stories throughout the summer as they urge people to report any non-emergencies online first.