More than 2,000 hoax calls made to South Yorkshire Police in two years

Emergency operators across the UK are being kept unnecessarily busy by a shocking number of prank police emergency calls, according to new analysis.

A Freedom of Information request submitted by The Star has found that South Yorkshire Police received a total of 2,089 hoax calls between September 2020 and August 2022, averaging out at around 87 calls per month. It also saw an increase of prank calls to South Yorkshire Police of 11 per cent between 2021 (990 calls) and 2022 (1,099 calls).

Further FOI requests made by home security specialists SimpliSafe found that of the 28 UK constabularies that answered, England as a whole received a shockingly high number of prank calls, with 92,280 between 2020/21, and 104,029 between 2021/22 - a 13 per cent increase in hoax calls in a year.

The county of Hertfordshire was found to have had the highest number of prank emergency calls. A total of 49,740 hoax calls were made over two years between September 2020 and September 2022 - an average of over 68 each day.

The biggest percentage increase year-on-year was London, where prank calls grew 200 per cent in the consecutive year. However, there were some outliers, with North Yorkshire Police experiencing a 52 per cent reduction in prank calls year-on-year with numbers dropping from 4,968 to 2,389.

Jonathan Wall, UK general manager at SimpliSafe, said: “The amount of hoax calls the police received across the UK is very worrying, especially when the emergency services are stretched so thin. These calls are a waste of resources and misdirect help from the people who really need it.

“Of course, if there is a genuine situation that requires the help of the emergency services, the right course of action is to dial 999. Ensuring that you’re fully protected and aware of what constitutes an emergency will help ensure you get the right help when you need it most.”