POLICE officers have released a handy guide for residents to help them identify when to phone 999 and when to call the non-emergency number – 101.

The aim is to prioritise emergency calls, but they still want to hear from the community about issues that affect them.

Problems such as noise complaints, to report flytipping, and to report a lost mobile phone should be made to 101 as they are still police issues but may not be as urgent as another emergency such as a robbery for example.

A spokesperson for South Yorkshire Police said: “Everyday our call handlers receive hundreds of calls, many are emergencies and non emergencies that are genuine calls for the police, but they also take lots of calls that are not a police issue but for another organisation.

“Our job is to help people and when our call handlers receive these calls they will always try and help and advise which organisation you need to speak to.

“Sometimes these calls can delay genuine police incidents from getting through, and we know how frustrating it is to be kept on hold when you need to report something.”

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