North Yorkshire Police ‘Tweetathon’ returns this week to reveal every call received during a 12-hour period

The popular event gives the public an insight into the volume and variety of calls officers deal with on a daily basis, including the amount of inappropriate, ‘pocket dials’ or misdirected calls they receive.

During their last Tweetathon which took place at Christmas, calls ranged from a missing kebab, to a naked man at the scene of a car crash in Northallerton, to a couple having an intimate moment by some garages behind a Scarborough hotel.

As anticipated, the force has seen exceptional high levels of demand during July and August.

North Yorkshire Police handled 33,221 calls in total during July, 10,490 of which were ‘999’ emergency calls, which is not only the highest July volumes in history recorded for the force, but their highest month on record.

Several factors have led to this increase which include the easing of Covid restrictions as well as the recent spike in good weather.

The county also sees a large influx of visitors on holiday in North Yorkshire during the summer months which factors in the increased calls to service.

Behind every 999 call, 101 call and online report in North Yorkshire is the same dedicated team of people handling those reports, 24 hours a day.

The team are based at the Force Control Room in York and are often described as the “Heroes in Headsets”.

Superintendent Jason Dickson, Head of Customer Contact at North Yorkshire Police, said: “The Tweetathon is always popular as it shows the public the variety of calls that our communications officers deal with daily.

“I hope that publicly highlighting the volume of incidents encourages people to think about the importance of only using 999 if it’s a genuine emergency.

"It is not appropriate to ring 999 because your taxi hasn’t arrived or because you’ve got a complaint about a pizza you’ve bought from a takeaway after a night out, or because you can’t get hold of the service you need.

"We are an emergency service, and it is vital that we are able to respond to those who need us most.

“We take hundreds of calls every day and want to be able to deliver an exemplary service to everyone who contacts us.

"But these nuisance or misdirected calls may stop us from getting help for a vulnerable person in need so all we would ask is that you think twice before picking up the phone and ringing the police on 999 if it is not an emergency.”

“Friday, and the weekend, are expected to busy for us, but I am confident that our dedicated team in the force control room are well-rehearsed and prepared for what’s ahead.

"I would like to thank the force control room team for their high levels of commitment and professionalism at a time when we are seeing exceptional demand.”

The Tweetathon can be followed on the North Yorkshire Police Twitter account @NYorksPolice with the hashtag #NYPfor12.