New non-emergency number ‘ten-five’ designed to provide better Police service

“Police receive more than two million calls a year. Almost 900,000 are to the 111 services. There are around 1.2 million non-emergency calls to other Police numbers.

Police Minister Stuart Nash says calling a cop suddenly got a whole lot easier with the launch of a ground-breaking new service for non-emergency calls.

"The single non-emergency number 'ten-five' is designed to provide better service for the public and to take the pressure off the iconic 111 phone number," Mr Nash says.

"Police receive more than two million calls a year. Almost 900,000 are to the 111 services. There are around 1.2 million non-emergency calls to other Police numbers.

"Just 20 per cent of 111 calls result in an emergency response, known as priority one. Another 20 per cent is priority two. This means at least sixty per cent of calls to the 111 number could be better dealt with on other channels. Some involve complaints about parking or noise or cheeky children.

"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.

"There are many other ways people can get help with community safety and crime prevention. The *555 number is for urgent road issues. There are online forms, the anonymous CrimeStoppers 0800 line and the 1737 mental health support line.

"The police workforce has never been larger, and earlier this year passed a record high number of 13,000 frontline officers and support staff. It is a crucial part of the Coalition Government's efforts to improve the wellbeing of communities.

"The new non-emergency number 'ten-five' now makes it so much easier to get the right help from this extra Police," says Mr Nash.

(With Inputs from New Zealand Government Press Release)