South Yorkshire Police: Officers ‘not deployed’ to almost half of incidents reported in Sheffield

In the 14 weeks up until November 28, officers in Sheffield did not attend 46 per cent of incidents reported to them.

This is higher than in Doncaster (43 per cent), Rotherham, (41 per cent) and Barnsley (39 per cent).

South Yorkshire Police say this does not mean they ‘ignore’ incidents, but the most serious incidents are prioritised.

Chief Superintendent Simon Wanless of South Yorkshire Police, said: “There are instances when we will respond to an incident by not deploying so we can make best use of our officers and prioritise the more serious incidents that cause harm in the communities we serve.

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“An example of an incident we might not deploy to could include a road traffic collision where no one is injured and all parties involved have remained at the scene and exchanged details for insurance purposes.

“Not deploying to an incident does not mean we ignore it – all incidents are recorded on our systems. A highly trained call handler will assess the call and either deem it appropriate to deploy officers or give further information and advice to the caller.”

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