North Yorkshire Police’s Tweetathon returns for summer 2022

The popular event, known as the Tweetathon aims to give members of the public an insight into the volume of calls that the force deals with, including the amount of inappropriate, ‘pocket dials’, or misdirected calls the force receives.

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.

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

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.

As well as dealing with members of the public, staff in the force control room in York also deploy police officers and take control of incidents.

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.

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

“There are also a significant number of calls that come through to us unnecessarily where the caller should have directed their call to an alternative and more appropriate agency or service and not the police.

“We also receive many calls where the caller has accidently “pocket dialled” us or given their phone to a child who accidently calls our emergency number.

"In this instance, our Communications Officers must spend time calling the person back to check it not a genuine emergency.

“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.”

As well as Twitter, updates throughout the Tweetathon will also be posted on North Yorkshire Police Facebook page (www.Facebook.com/NorthYorkshirePolice) and Instagram account (www.instagram.com/NorthYorkshirePolice).