Life on the beat on one of the busiest nights of the year

Happy New Year from all of us here at North Yorkshire Police! While everybody else was out enjoying themselves last night, we had police officers and police staff working really hard to keep you safe.

In York our force control room is responsible for handling all police 999 and 101 calls as well as the online reporting service through our website. It was a busy night, between 7pm and 7am we handled 210 999 calls and 110 101 calls.

On average we answered the 999 calls in just six seconds and the 101 calls in four Minutes and 13 seconds. We’re proud of these stats and are grateful to our communications officers for their continued hard work.  

(Force Control Room staff with ACC Moseley) 

As well as dealing with members of the public, staff in the force control room also deploy police officers and take control of incidents. To deal with the increased demand last night we had extra police officers on patrol, most of whom were very wet with the atrocious weather conditions. Here is just a snapshot of the incidents that we attended:

• Violent crime
• Anti social behaviour
• Road traffic collisions
• Possible possession and supply of drugs
• Mental health and concern for safety
• Highway disruption
• Suspicious activity
• Weather related incidents
• Drivers unfit through drink and drugs
• Burglary and robbery

 

(Officers in York City Centre with ACC Moseley)

Sadly, whilst dealing with the above we had various officers assaulted across the county. It’s totally unacceptable that police officers have to go through this when just doing their job and shows the levels of violence that we are often faced with.

This morning our cells are busy, and various people will start the new year with questions from us about their behaviour and actions from the last night. Where appropriate this will result in consequences that will stay with them for a lifetime.

Our Assistant Chief Constable Ben Moseley was on duty as Gold Commander for the night. Ben said: “I spent last night out and about at various locations across North Yorkshire overseeing the team and supporting the frontline.

“New Years Eve is always one of the busiest days and nights of the year for the police and although the wet weather understandably prevented many people from heading out, the last 24 hours lived up to expectation.

“Between Christmas Eve and today, many police officers and staff have sacrificed festive family time, working day and night shifts to protect the public and I’m immensely proud of the commitment which our team have shown in order to protect communities in North Yorkshire.

“As we deal with the aftermath and reflect on last night, we now look forward to 2025, on behalf of the entire force, I wish everyone a happy new year.”