Are you making the right call? North Wales Police are urging the public to consider the best way to contact them, ensuring emergency lines are kept free for genuine life-or-death situations.
Learn about the different channels available, including calling 101 for non-emergencies, using the online web chat, or reporting incidents through the North Wales Police website. Discover why it's crucial to choose the right contact method and what to do if you accidentally call 999.
Remember, efficient communication helps the police respond quickly to those who need it most. Make informed decisions and help keep our community safe!
00:00so my name is Paris Hatton I'm the deputy call center manager for North
00:16Wales Police Control Room and in the control room this is where all the calls
00:20for North Wales Police from 101 and 909 this is where they all come into
00:30our campaign for this summer is called make the right call it's not about people
00:34not contacting the police when they need to just making sure that you contact us
00:38through the right channel if it's an emergency call we need you to call us on
00:43999 if it's not an emergency and then what we need to tell you today is all
00:48about the other ways that you can contact us
00:55so if you need the police and it's not urgent you can contact us on 101
00:59that's the traditional means that you can contact us by telephone we do get
01:04busy on one-on-one at times so what I like to do is just explain that there are
01:07other ways that you can contact us as well when it isn't an emergency so you
01:11can contact us via web chat and that's an online chat facility and with that you'll
01:16actually speak to a real person on the other end in our control room here you
01:20can also go on to the North Wales Police website where you can email us with a
01:24report and you can also have an online reporting function as well so you can
01:29report crimes anti-social behavior and other similar crimes as I need to just
01:35need to stress that's not for emergencies however
01:38so does it matter if you phone 909 when it isn't an emergency yes it does please don't call us a 909 if it isn't a call where we've got life at risk or property at risk
01:53or someone is in danger we we need you to contact us on 101 and the reason for
02:00that being that we do have a limited resource in the control room to take the
02:05calls and if you call us on the emergency 909 line it does mean that you are
02:10potentially preventing genuine emergency calls from coming through to be answered
02:15promptly so we can send the urgent response out to people at their time of need
02:22so there are times when the 101 queue can seem like a very long queue and you could find yourself waiting for several minutes to get through to us
02:30please don't hang up if that's the case please stay on the line with us and bear with us
02:37if you hang up you will lose your place in the queue and you'll find yourself at the
02:42back of the queue again so it's better for yourselves to stay in the queue until the next call taker is available to answer your call or alternatively you can go on to the online reporting facilities that we have as well
02:54so there will be times when people do accidentally call 999 that'll be when the phone is in somebody's pocket or in somebody's handbag or what have you so does it matter if you hang up if that happens accidentally it does if you realize that you've done this please stay on the line until one of our operators can speak to you and if you don't do that then unfortunately we'll have to try and call you back and
03:24and that can sometimes take time for us to do that but we have to do that just to make sure that everyone's safe and not in need of any sort of police assistance
03:31so when should you phone 999 you should phone 999 if someone's life is in immediate danger or there's a threat of someone being in danger
03:44you should also phone if a crime is in progress now or if you believe that the suspects are still in the vicinity
03:50you should also phone 999 if perhaps there's a serious road traffic collision on the A55 or one of our other roads in North Wales
03:59and the road might be blocked or again there are injuries or casualties
04:04so they make the right call campaign for this summer as I say it's not about people not phoning the police
04:24it's just for people just to consider how do I contact the police is it a 909 call is it a 101 call
04:31and if the 101 line is busy to consider alternative means such as going online or using our web chat service
04:39also to consider is it a call for the police or is it a call for one of our partner agencies
