Online or 999?
On average we receive 950 calls a day, with over half of those (500 daily average) being non-emergency. In addition we have over 150 contacts every day via our online digital channels that are available 24 hours a day. The same staff who answer your calls also respond to those digital channels. We will prioritise our emergency calls for service and you will be directed to the appropriate agency if we can not help you.
A 999 call should be made if you are reporting a crime that is in progress or if there is an immediate threat to life and/or property.
You can call 999 wherever you are and we will be able to help you.
If, your enquiry is not an emergency then you can report on our website. Alternatively, you can call 101 to speak to a call handler.
When you report online, your report is dealt with in the same way as if you had called us. A call handler from our Force Control Room will triage your report and will give it the same level of risk assessment as when you call 101 or 999.
We encourage you to report all non-emergencies online, so our phone lines are free for our emergency 999 calls.
Have you ever called 999 by accident and panicked, quickly hanging up the phone so you don’t waste police time?
Maybe your child got hold of your phone and called us, or you ‘pocket dialled’ by accident? or maybe you called us and changed your mind, abandoning the call when you saw or heard someone else calling the emergency services?
When you call us by mistake, even if your call hasn’t connected yet, please don’t hang up.
Demand for our control room is high, and we receive thousands of calls each week, and all dropped calls need to be investigated to confirm that you are safe and not in need of police assistance.
Which is why when you call our emergency line, talk to us; even if you have misdialled or called by accident. You won’t be in trouble – we just need to confirm you are ok.
Thank you for helping.
What is an emergency?
In an emergency you can call 999 and an officer will be dispatched to you as soon as possible. An emergency 999 call is one where there is:
- a risk to life
- use, or threat of use, of violence
- serious injury
- serious damage to property
A 999 call can also be made when a crime is in progress.
Ways to report
There are several ways to report a crime to us. The way in which you report depends on whether you are reporting an emergency or non-emergency situation.
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In an emergency
999
Call 999 in an emergency situation.
If you accidentally dial 999, please stay on the line and tell the operator you’re safe and that no crime has occurred.
If you're in danger but you can't talk on the phone, you should still call 999, then follow these instructions.
Hearing or speech impairments
- If you have a hearing or speech impairment and you’ve pre-registered with the emergencySMS service, you can use our textphone service 18000 or text us on 999.
- If you're a British Sign Language (BSL) user, you can call 999 BSL to use a remote BSL interpreter.
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For non-emergencies
northants.police.uk/ro
There are lots of ways of reporting non-emergencies to us. We encourage you to report all non-emergencies online. Your report will be dealt with in the same way as if you had called us and means that our phone lines are kept clear for emergency calls.
- Report online
- Call 101
If you do not wish to report a crime but would like to speak to us for another reason, please use our contact us page.
Hearing or speech impairments
- British Sign Language (BSL) users can connect to a BSL interpreter for non-emergency enquiries via the video calling system SignVideo.
Called us by accident?
If you have called us by accident, please stay on the line and let us know that you are safe and not in need of police assistance.
In just one 24 hour period in June this year, we received 91 misdialled or 'pocket-dialled' calls. All of these calls must be investigated by the control room to ensure that no emergency support is needed.
These calls are separate from silent calls, where the caller is in danger but is unable to speak. You can find out what to do in that situation here.
It takes us roughly six to eight minutes to investigate just one silent or background noise-only call. They must go through a thorough process as outlined below:
- Call handler asks caller to speak, make a noise or press buttons if they have an emergency. If there is no response, they will then:
- Ask BT to play back the beginning of the call to listen for any speech. If there is none, they then must:
- Check whether this number has made any previous calls into the control room and to see if there is any intelligence on it. If none, then:
- The call handler calls the number and leaves a message if there is no answer. They also send a text message.
When all attempts to make contact have failed, the call handler passes the incident onto a Sergeant who will listen to the original call and make an assessment as to whether to close the incident or investigate further based on what they hear and any call history or intelligence gathered.
Investigating these calls takes our call handlers away from answering emergencies. If you call us by accident, please stay on the line and let us know - you will not be in trouble.
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Called us by accident? Please don't hang up -
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999 call answered -
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Call handler attempts to speak to caller -
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Call playback -
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Phone number is checked for previous history -
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Attempts to make contact -
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Incident sent for review -
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Sergeant reviews incident -
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Incident closed