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# Report reveals number of 999 calls to police has surged during the past year
- URL: https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/report-reveals-number-of-999-calls-to-police-has-surged-during-the-past-year/
- Published: 2022-10-06T05:50:00.000Z
- Updated: 2022-10-05T19:58:34.000Z
- Description: Emergency calls to police in Staffordshire have surged by 20% during the past year it has been revealed – meaning staff are handling around 89 extra 999 calls a day.
- Author: Kerry Ashdown, Local Democracy Reporter
- Tags: Crime, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-22 19:11, News

Emergency calls to police in Staffordshire have surged by 20% during the past year, it has been revealed – meaning staff are handling around 89 extra 999 calls a day.

Periods of demand have become more unpredictable since the Covid pandemic, police bosses have said, with the average time to answer 999 calls standing at 40.4 seconds in August.

But a report to a police performance meeting said action such as hiring more call handlers and the launch of a new triage service would help improve the service.

> “Positive indications have been seen in September 2022 with the percentage of calls answered within ten seconds increasing, and average time to answer is starting to see reductions.  
>  
> “The latest week saw 73% of 999 calls answered in ten seconds and an average time to answer of 33.6 seconds.”  
>  
> Report to Staffordshire Police performance meeting

Staffordshire Police’s Chief Constable Chris Noble told the meeting that the pattern of calls being received by the force was unpredictable.

> “We used to measure the high water mark of demand as New Year’s Eve – what was the busiest day of the year for contact.  
>  
> “I asked how our demand in September mapped against the average New Year’s Eve demand and I think we had eight ‘New Years Eves’ in September alone.  
>  
> “We didn’t know when they were going to arrive, so the challenge around demand isn’t just volume, it’s complete unpredictability.  
>  
> “A Tuesday evening, maybe caused by an accident on a motorway or a whole raft of other things, puts a massive demand into the system and you can never efficiently resource against that.”  
>  
> Chief Constable Chris Noble, Staffordshire Police