Suffolk police dealt with nearly 400 emergency calls on New Year’s Eve, with demand 50% higher than average.
The force received 391 emergency calls in the 24 hours from 7am on December 31 to January 1 – 20% of which were urgent ‘Grade A’ responses.
The total is a 10% increase on the number of 999 calls recorded in the same time frame last year, when police picked up the phone to 361 emergency reports.
It is also 50% higher than the average number of calls received in a 24 hour period, which police estimate at 254.
It comes shortly after a leading officer claimed police are being left increasingly stretched by a huge volume of incoming calls demanding their immediate attention – leaving less time for routine patrols.
Supt Kerry Cutler, from Suffolk Constabulary, said “policing is more complex than ever,” and encouraged members of the public to report non-urgent crimes using the force’s website.
Over the 12 months prior to December, police in the Ipswich east, west and central safer neighbourhood teams – which includes the town and outer areas such as Kesgrave and Claydon – dealt with 9,000 calls requiring an immediate response and 24,000 which needed a priority response.
In total, that is an average of 90 calls a day or a nearly four an hour – and an average of more than one an hour requiring an immediate response.
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