World of the Bizarre

UK police reveal most bizarre calls to non-emergency number

By T.K. Randall
August 24, 2026

Image: Police Lights
Credit: Highway Patrol Images / CC BY 2.0 (adapted) In the UK, there are around 20 million calls a year to the police's non-emergency number 101 which is designed to deal with less-urgent problems so that the main emergency number 999 doesn't get inundated.

As revealed recently, however, some of the calls this number receives are downright bizarre.

One caller to Humberside Police, for example, had simply been asking for a lift, while another wanted to know if their pension pot would be tax free or not.

In another incident, a member of the public dialled up the non-emergency number to report that their pizza was taking too long to be delivered, while another had asked about child care arrangements.

One person called up to report that they had mislaid their umbrella, one to report that a parcel had failed to arrive and another to complain that the service at their local pub was too slow.While most of these can be easily dismissed, the problem is that each call takes up resources.

To make matters worse, a significant percentage of calls to the non-emergency number are from people looking for other services, such as the NHS non-emergency helpline.

Now, in a bid to prevent this problem, police authorities are turing to AI to help screen calls.

"This innovation addresses a long-standing challenge in public contact by using AI to triage and redirect non-police calls," said National Police Chiefs' Constable Stuart Hooper.

"It'll help forces manage demand more effectively, freeing up call handlers to focus on those who genuinely need police support."

Source: Mail Online

Tags: Police