‘Anxious’ public calls 999 more as police presence on the street declines

♦ The rate of 999 emergency calls has risen sharply because cuts in the number of officers means there is now no visible presence to turn to, police representatives have said.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that 999 calls across the UK rose by 15 per cent in the 12 months to June 2017. At the same time, the number of abandoned 999 calls (where the caller hangs up before speaking to a police operator) rose from 8,000 to 16,300 across the 32 police forces who were able to provide information.

Calum Macleod, vice chair of the Police Federation, said the rise in 999 calls reflected the anxiety felt by the public at the cut in police numbers. Overall officer numbers fell from a peak of 144,353 in 2009 to 122,859 in 2016. Specialist armed officers were cut from 6,796 in 2010 to 5,639 in 2016.

Mr Macleod said: “Recorded crime is actually rising so you are seeing more incidents every day, and there’s less visibility so the public is feeling less secure. It’s not a difficult equation. If you take 40,000 police officers and staff out of the service over the past eight years [and] increase demand on those left, especially in having to manage non-police related inquiries, then something has to give.”