South Yorkshire Police release August control room statistics and details of worst 999 call

South Yorkshire Police answered over 60,000 calls in August, during the month many people and children were off on their summer holidays.

The force shares the monthly statistics on social media, to give people an insight into life in its emergency control room, and the types of calls staff shouldn’t receive.

MORE: Fans wanted by police following disorder at play-off match between Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest

This month one caller said: “Come and fix my leaking roof and come on blue lights.”

This follows a call last month, where somebody dialled 999 and said: “My wifi isn’t working, do you know what time it is?”

MORE: Sheffield Crown Court: Serial burglar jailed after targeting wheelchair-bound man

The force splits it statistics into 999 and 101 calls, with 999 being for emergencies.

This month, South Yorkshire Police received 26,640 calls to the emergency number, a 2,200 call decrease on July, and also reduced the time it took for 999 calls to be answered – down to nine seconds from 12.

The busiest day for the force last month was August 13, where they took 1,070 emergency 999 calls in one day.

The force took just over 4,500 more 101 calls than in July, increasing from 29,896 to 34,483, a staunch increase compared with the 999 statistics.

Despite the increase in demand on the non-emergency number, they also cut the call waiting time from 10 minutes and 45 seconds, to nine minutes and 19 seconds.

The total number of calls answered by the control room during the month of August was 61,123