In the weeks ahead, West Yorkshire Police and the police service as a whole could potentially face unprecedented levels of demand as the Coronavirus outbreak continues.
Frontline officers and staff will do everything they can to keep the public safe, however; they need your help to achieve this.
They know how important it is for you to be able to contact them when you need to and they will put all our effort into making sure you can.
WYP also know that many of you want to speak to the officer investigating your crime and that being able to do so is key.
This is why they have tried to make it easy for you to contact the officer investigating your case without calling the contact centre. The best way to get in touch with the relevant officer, is through the ‘Local Crime Tracker’ link on the webpage:
https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/crimetracker
Tom Donohoe is the Senior Manager at the Force’s Contact Management Centre, where 101 and 999 calls are handled.
He says it is crucial to work in co-ordination with the public to provide the best possible service to victims and witnesses:
“To use the Crime Tracker, all you need is the crime reference number and you can send a message direct to the officer. If you include your email address, then the officer will be able to update you more effectively.
“Please make use of the ‘Track My Crime’ link, as by reducing the calls received by our contact centre, you will be helping us to maintain our ability to respond to those in urgent need of our help.
“Although this is a system that we routinely encourage people to use, it is even more important during the Coronavirus outbreak.
“We recognise that people will have lots of questions emerging from the current situation, but it is imperative that we keep our lines of communication available for the priorities, which matter most to our communities.
“Please act responsibly and only call 999 where there is a genuine risk to life or personal safety. The 999 system is designed for calls where there is a significant risk to life or safety and we do not want to prevent those from reaching the right emergency service as quickly as possible.
“Seek advice online or via non-emergency systems rather than overloading the 999 system, which may prevent someone who is genuinely at risk from getting the urgent assistance they need.”
