WEST Yorkshire Police has reminded people of what they should contact the police about following one of the busiest 24 hours they have ever experienced.

There were 5,140 total contacts from members of the public into the Customer Contact Centre from 6am on Friday, June 17 to 6am on Saturday, June 18, making it the third highest 24 hours for contacts ever.

Tom Donohoe, Customer Contact Centre Manager, said: “This was completely unprecedented and more in line with what we might expect to see on New Year’s Eve, which tends to be our busiest day of the year. On an average New Year’s Eve, we take around 1,850 999 calls and during this 24-hour period, we took 2,007.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that we would never dissuade anyone from contacting the police for legitimate police business but when contact levels are that high, we need to ensure that people are contacting us for the right reasons. We are asking people to please help us to help you.

“On a daily basis, we are still receiving nuisance calls, calls that should be for other services such as local authorities and the RSPCA, and calls that can be dealt with online."