Police are using today's unique date of 9/9/09 as an opportunity to remind people not to abuse the 999 system.

Thames Valley Police’s Control Room and Enquiry Department (CR&ED), based across four locations at Kidlington, Abingdon, Windsor and Milton Keynes, has dealt with 324,211 999 emergency calls this year.

Figures show that between January and July 2009 1,631 hoax calls were made to Thames Valley Police.

However this figure does not include calls which are made unnecessarily, either by people abusing the 999 system or people using 999 when they should be calling the non-emergency number, 0845 8 505 505.

Police said due to the nature of these unnecessary calls, it was not possible to obtain exact figures for the number received, but examples include calls made to chase outstanding pizza deliveries or to check opening hours for a local supermarket.

The 999 system was established so that people could contact police, fire and ambulance services in emergency circumstances, such as threats to personal safety and welfare of the public or where a crime is in progress. For any other matters, such as the reporting of a crime that has already happened, people should call our 0845 8 505 505 number.

Chief Supt Liam MacDougall, Head of CR&ED, said: “9/9/09 is an ideal opportunity to remind people of the importance of not abusing the 999 system.

“Unnecessary 999 calls obviously mean that genuine callers with a real emergency to report may have difficulty getting through to us. The force is working hard to reduce the number of unnecessary calls precisely to ensure we are available when members of the public need us. “We work closely with colleagues across the Force and with local authority partners to identify those people who ring us because they have no one else to turn to, because of mental health and other social difficulties.

"Action plans can be agreed with individuals, which may involve use of ABCs (acceptable behaviour contracts) to curtail the unnecessary use of the 999 system.

“If a person persistently misuses the emergency system, there are steps we can take to prevent further abuse; their phone can be disconnected, an Anti-Social Behaviour Order could be obtained or they could be prosecuted under the Misuse of Communications Act 2003.

“Network providers assist us with terminating service to mobile phones that have been used in such a way as to block real emergency calls”.

Examples include:

Request for Chiltern Air Support to pick someone up from a traffic queue so that they don’t miss an important meeting

Report of a missing person, which, on investigation, was a request to pick a daughter up from someone else’s house

I’ve missed the train! What time is the next one?

Noise related incidents (noisy neighbours – should be referred to Environmental Health)

Emergency replacement request for a lost passport.