999 is not for a late food order or stolen sandwich

If you’ve been listening to Heart or Smooth West Country during the last couple of weeks – other radio stations are available – then, in between the music, you may have heard clips from the Gloucestershire Constabulary control room.

In one, the caller complains “The neighbour’s kids are playing too loud again, can you send someone round?” Another that he’s “Waited over an hour for my food delivery, and they’ve sent the wrong flippin’ burger!”

There is also a woman complaining that someone at work has “Eaten my sandwich, AGAIN!” and there’s a man who’s angry that a public payphone has swallowed his one pound coin, and he wants his money back. All very amusing. Except it’s not.

Sadly, though, they are typical of those selfish people think nothing of distracting busy operators from real emergencies. You should only dial 999 if a crime is in progress, someone is at risk of immediate danger, you see a suspect for a serious crime, or a traffic collision involving serious injury.

Last month, the force control room (FCR) took more than 18,500 calls. Over 7,500 were 999 calls and around 11,000 were on the non-emergency 101 number. In the year from 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025, the FCR handled almost a quarter of a million calls. More than 90,500 of those were 999s and around 132,700 on 101.

Recent figures showed our FCR handlers answered 999 calls, on average, in 6.14 seconds, well inside the national average of 7.71 seconds. It placed the Constabulary second out of eight of our most similar forces for their speed in answering 999 calls - and fourth, within that group, for the percentage of calls answered within 10 seconds. It is worth noting that to meet the national standard, forces must answer at least 90% of calls within 10 seconds and that 16 forces failed to achieve that target. 

While the vast majority of those calls would have been for genuine reasons, there would undoubtedly have been a number of time wasters, as the radio clips have illustrated.

That advertising campaign was timed to coincide with this week’s International Control Room week to celebrate the achievements of control rooms around the world.

The Constabulary’s call handlers may operate out of sight, but they do vital work and are very much on the front line. I hope you never need them. But always think before you do.