West Yorkshire Police urge public to stay on the line for accidental 999 calls

The Force is raising awareness that if you accidentally call 999 and it connects, that it saves police time if you stay on the line and explain what has happened.

This is becuase an estimate of two call handlers’ shifts a day are taken up with dealing with dropped 999 calls.

Tom Donohoe, customer contact centre manager, said: “On an average day, we receive around 200 dropped 999 calls.

“For every one of these calls, our call handlers must get back in contact with the caller and check that it wasn’t a legitimate call and that the caller is ok.

“This can be extremely time consuming and frustrating.

“I completely understand why your first instinct would be to hang up, but we would ask that you stay on the line so that we can quickly establish that you do not need the police or any other emergency service.”