A senior North Yorkshire Police officer has called the force’s average 999 response time of 20 seconds an “unacceptable number.”

Head of Operational Training, Planning & Logistics Superintendent, Michael Walker, made the comments as part of his update on the force’s performance at the monthly Public Accountability Meeting chaired by Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoë Metcalfe. He said:

“The average speed of answer is 20 seconds. The target is obviously 10 seconds, so that number is an unacceptable number, which I know is an unacceptable number. Which is why we’ve put in several measures… to improve that.”

Under Home Office targets, 90% of emergency calls should be answered in under 10 seconds.

The Stray Ferret reported last week that in July North Yorkshire Police were only answering 39.9% of these within the target period – the lowest in the country.

However, Supt Walker aimed to reassure the public that work was being done to reduce the problem.

He promised that there would be 10% more staff in the force’s York control room by the end of September.

Recruitment and training of new call handlers was already underway.

In the meantime, he explained, 20 police staff with previous experience of call handling had been brought in to assist the team.

This included serving police officers, though Supt Walker confirmed that they had only been moved where it had been deemed safe to do so.

He added that the force had a “determination” to improve.

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoë Metcalfe and Superintendent Michael Walker in the Public Accountability Meeting.

Increased demand and pocket dials

Also discussed in the meeting was the increasing number of emergency calls.

The number of people calling 999 has increased since 2018, with a peak during the pandemic.

Supt Walker also revealed that one in 10 emergency calls were pocket dials.

That meant the force had to spend time call people back to ensure that there was no emergency taking place.