A new phone number has been introduced for non-emergency calls to the police, the Government has announced.
The new number, 105, was designed to "provide better service for the public and to take pressure off the iconic 111 phone number," Police Minister Stuart Nash said in a statement today.
"Police receive more than two million calls a year. Almost 900,000 are to the 111 service. There are around 1.2 million non-emergency calls to other Police numbers," Mr Nash said.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush said police are difficult to contact in non-emergency situations.
"Calls to 111 should be limited to cases where an emergency is happening now or just happened and there's a threat to life or property. If it's already happened and there's no immediate danger, call 105.
"We hope the introduction of the three-digit ‘ten-five’ number will make it easier for callers to get in touch with the right part of the Police service for the right reasons."
Mr Nash added that there are "many other ways people can get help with community safety and crime prevention," including the *555 number for urgent road issues, Crimestoppers' anonymous 0800 line, online forms and the 1737 mental health support line.
The police workforce has also "never been larger", Mr Nash said, after a record high of 13,000 frontline officers and support staff passed police college.
"The new non-emergency number ‘ten-five’ now makes it so much easier to get the right help from these extra Police," Mr Nash said.
More information on the new number can be found here.
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