North Wales Police are taking part in a campaign to encourage the public to use other reporting methods for non-urgent enquiries, rather than 999.

During 2024, their call centre in St Asaph received 111,006 999 calls, including ones about a pigeon with a broken wing, missing the bus, wrong takeaway orders and being unable to collect an Amazon parcel.

Every minute operators spend on the phone dealing with calls like these, is another someone may have to wait to get through with a genuine emergency.

But what is a “genuine emergency”?

• A life is in danger, or someone is being physically threatened.

• You are witnessing a crime happening at the time, or think the offenders are still nearby.

• You witness or are involved in a serious road traffic collision where someone is badly injured, or other vehicles are causing an obstruction or a danger to other road users.

The Make the Right Call campaign asks people to take a moment to think whether your call is an actual emergency.

You could have a look at the police website where many questions are answered in the ‘Advice and Information’ section.

If you still need to speak to police you can use their live chat facility to report incidents such as crime, domestic abuse, missing people, anti-social behaviour or lost and found property via their website, or call 101.

If you accidentally call the police, don’t worry, but don’t hang up. Operators need to make sure the call wasn’t genuine, and will have to spend time contacting you back. If they can’t get hold of you will need to send an officer to check you’re okay.

This time that could be saved by staying on the line and letting the operator know it was a genuine mistake, and you don’t need the police.