POLICE in Wiltshire completed a 12 hour tweeting marathon over the weekend, rounding off their week-long campaign to reduce inappropriate 999 calls.

During the week, hundreds of thousands of social media users shared stories from Wiltshire Police’s call handlers, audio clips of real life hoax calls, and information on the appropriate use of their 101 and 999 services.

The aim of the Who You Gonna Call campaign was to raise awareness of the emergency and non-emergency numbers, and to reduce demand on their service’s to ensure real emergency calls are dealt with.

Paul Saunders, critical incident manager inspector at Wiltshire Police, said: “The campaign has been a brilliant opportunity for us to give the public an insight into the huge variety of incidents we deal with every day, from those behind the scenes to those working on the frontline.

“Some of the clips released this week may be amusing, but they do have a serious message behind them.

“Every inappropriate 999 call we receive means that those people with a real emergency may be delayed in getting the help they need.

“I hope that some of the stories shared this week have helped make people think before dialling 999 - would it be better dealt with by dialling 101?

“Of course, we would never discourage anyone from dialling 999 if it was a genuine emergency. We are always here to help you.”

Head of contact management John Flynn added: “Our staff are all brilliant, dedicated people.

“Each time they come to work they never know what they may face, and whilst this is part of the excitement of the role, it also means they never have time to prepare themselves for what the next call may be.

“Whether they are answering 101 or 999 calls, or sending officers via the radio, they all work so hard.”