The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
The number of calls to 101 in Lincolnshire that were abandoned due to waiting times increased by 53 per cent in the past 12 months.
The average wait time for an answer on Lincolnshire Police’s non-emergency number has risen to 2mins 45 secs from 1min 50 secs, a Freedom of Information request has revealed in the 12 months preceding October 1, 2019.
The longest wait time anyone experienced within that year period was 50mins 30 secs, though the force says only 28 of 60,000 calls in its busiest month of the year (July to September) took more than 10 minutes to answer.
A spokesman for Lincolnshire Police said: “In the past year Lincolnshire Police has introduced a number of changes that have increased the amount of time that our call handlers spend on calls.
“These include new processes for assessing threat, harm and risk and better recording of missing persons.”
In the 12 months before October, 23,053 calls were abandoned without the callers having spoken to anyone, up from 15,041 in the 12 months previous to that.
A spokesman continued: “One of the reasons is that we now provide callers with informations about where they are in the queue.
“This allows callers to make a decision about whether they wish to wait or to call back at another time.”
