Public misconception about 101 needs to be addressed

The implementation of the 101 service was achieved successfully, without significant barriers being faced, but some misconceptions about it from members of the public need to be addressed, a report has found.

The Home Office report – Rolling out the police single non-emergency number (101): research into the public’s and practitioners’ views – reviewed the extent to which the 101 service was operating after it was established to create a single, memorable non-emergency number for contacting the police, with the 999 number only to be used for emergencies.

The report was compiled after questioning members of the public living in the areas of the first three forces to adopt the number – Hertfordshire Police, Essex Police and the Metropolitan Police Service. The report concluded that most people have a clear idea about what constitutes an emergency situation and the appropriate circumstances in which to use 101.

However, a minority of participants held misconceptions about using non-emergency numbers and some had specific concerns about 101. Some residents mistakenly assumed that non-emergency calls would not be logged; and that non-emergency call handlers were less well trained than their emergency counterparts. Some reported that they would opt to use 999 even if the situation was not an emergency.

In addition, although users who had experience of 101 generally had a positive view of the conduct of call handlers, who were viewed as taking calls seriously and treating callers with courtesy, a small number of participants reported being dissatisfied with the service, typically as a result of delays in speaking to a handler or their calls failing to be returned. In general, users were also not aware there was a charge for calling 101.

The report also found that a “handful” of people interviewed who had used 101 were unhappy with the subsequent police action following their call. In some cases, the dissatisfaction resulted from a perceived lack of action or follow-up that the caller expected to receive, including one user who reported criminal damage to his car and was not contacted again by the police.

The report said: “There were only isolated examples where users experienced a delay or had a negative experience where calls were not returned after a message was left. The majority of users were found to be satisfied with their experience using 101 with very few users dissatisfied. Where some dissatisfaction was expressed, this usually related to the police response and action following the call rather than being related to the specific initial call to 101.

“This, alongside some of the views expressed in the focus groups, further served to demonstrate that initial call handling is only one part of a complicated process by which the police are judged in their handling of non-emergency calls.”

The Home Office said the 101 number marked a significant step forward in reconnecting the police and public and it will continue to work with forces to highlight the service and how it should be used.

A spokesperson said: “The British Crime Survey found that only 54 per cent of the public knew how to contact their local police if they wanted to talk about policing, crime or anti-social behaviour. Giving people an easy and memorable non-emergency number for their local force makes it easier for them to report crime and disorder and eases the pressure on 999.”

A number of recommendations were made aimed at improving the 101 service. These included calls to:

•Explore the potential to use large-scale or national events as an opportunity to further promote the existence of 101;
•Undertake any necessary and possible improvements to the national or local IVR (interactive voice response) systems to improve the customer experience;
•The study has identified several misapprehensions among the public over the use of 101 and these should be addressed in future awareness campaigns, such as: emphasise that non-emergency call handling is done to the same