Essex Police reject 999 tweet-a-thon scheme (From Gazette)

Essex Police reject 999 tweet-a-thon scheme

10:05am Wednesday 20th February 2013 in News

A SCHEME which reduced pressure on the 999 service has been dismissed by Essex Police as too much work.
 

West Midlands Police tweeted summaries of emergency calls received over a 24 hour spell to highlight some of the unncessary calls they receive.
 

They included calls about blocked sinks and McDonalds service times.
 

During the tweet-a-thon calls to the non emergency 101 number doubled and those to 999 fell by more than 30 per cent.
 

It was done to get people to think before dialling and tying up precious resources and was hailed a success.
 

However a spokesman for Essex Police dismissed the suggestion it could be tried in Essex.

He said: “There are no current plans for Essex to try this as it is a very resource intensive exercise.”