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WHETHER it’s through news reports or television drama, greater transparency has taken us closer to the police than ever before.

Real-time 999 calls are used to illustrate court reports.

The Channel 5 documentary series ‘Night Shift’ has shed light on the range of incidents our officers face when they go to work after dark.

But you might also have heard, on local radio over the last few days, how this familiarity has produced an unwanted side effect.

How, all too often, Constabulary call handlers who have to be ready to deal with real-life emergencies at any given time, are side-tracked by time-wasters.

Like the caller who dialled 999 claiming someone in the office had eaten their sandwich.

Or the phone box caller who followed suit because the machine had failed to return a one pound coin.

Examples like these might appear ‘a bit of a laugh’ but imagine if you were in the middle of a real emergency and couldn’t get through.

Or one of the many who have complained to me about hanging on for a 101 non-emergency call that was never picked-up. Maybe that was why.

The radio ads are part of a campaign I have commissioned, which includes a leaflet that, if you haven’t already received it, will be dropping through your letterboxes any day now and has all the information you need to get through to the police in the most efficient way should the need arise.

As the first point of contact for most people who want the police, our telephone operators are on the front line. And improving the service of the force control room (FCR) has been one of my priorities.

That is why I have found the money to hire more operators and improve the technology.

We can always get better, and I accept we have more to do to ensure we can cope with spikes in demand.

But it is a matter of fact that, for many months, we have been answering 999 calls well within the 10 second national target, and the response time on the non-emergency 101 line has been falling consistently too, with the average now well under 2 minutes.

We don’t want those improvements being undermined by time wasters and I hope our Click, Call, Connect campaign will get that message across.