Just 15 per cent of 999 calls it receives are genuine emergencies, says MPS

In the past year MPS call handlers have been contacted by people frustrated by their delivery drivers not turning up, someone who had a spider in their room and in one instance because their dog was not coming back into the house.

The force says these calls are taking up “valuable call handler time”, stopping them from dealing with genuine emergencies.

Now the MPS is urging the public to think before they call and only call 999 in urgent or life-threatening situations.

Commander Caroline Haines, who heads up the MPS’s Command and Control, said: “When someone’s life is in danger, or a crime is being committed, seconds count. Unfortunately, too many people call 999 for things that simply aren’t an emergency or a matter for police.

“These calls could mean someone who is in genuine need and danger must wait longer to get the help they urgently need.

“That is why we’re running a campaign to remind the public of the other ways they can contact us, so we can focus on keeping London safe. Let’s keep 999 free for those who genuinely need it.”

She said some of the main reasons for calling 999 unnecessarily include asking for updates on previous crime reports, reporting crimes which are not immediately happening, reporting items stolen days or even weeks later, or civil disputes, such as arguments between tenants and landlords.

The MPS is also asking those who accidentally call 999 to stay on the phone until they have spoken to an operator, otherwise handlers have to spend time undertaking a risk assessment to make sure the person who called is not in danger.

In a one-year period (July 2024-July 2025) more than four million incidents were reported; 2.2 million of these were reported via 999 calls of which only 15 per cent required an immediate dispatch

The top two reasons for 999 calls in this period were abandoned calls (22 per cent) and contact record (21 per cent) of which around 88 per cent and 97 per cent respectively did not require a police response at all.

Each abandoned call takes approximately 15 minutes for the call handler to carry out a follow up risk assessment/check, the force says. ‘Contact record’ covers instances where people are ringing to report further information on a crime already reported or to request a crime reference number (particularly when they have already been given it but lost it).