The 101 service is for reporting minor and non-emergency crimes where immediate or high-priority response is not required, such as:
To report a crime, if the suspect is no longer in the area
To offer evidence for an investigation
To give the police information about a threat of crime
To make an enquiry to the police
To verify that a police officer is genuine
The system determines the caller's location based on the telephone exchange or cell tower they are connected to, and automatically connects them to the police force covering that area, unless the caller chooses otherwise. In some cases, some people may be given an option of choosing from multiple forces, if they are close to a boundary. If the caller would like to speak to a different police force to the one determined by the automated system, they are prompted to verbally choose, by speaking the name of the force they need, however major towns, cities, and counties will also be accepted, with the caller being redirected to the police force that covers that area. If the system is still unable to determine the correct force, then the caller will be transferred to a national human operator who will determine this instead, and then connect the caller to the appropriate force. The emergency number 999 or 112 should be called in emergencies, when an immediate police presence is needed. These include cases where:
A crime is in progress
A crime appears to be imminent
A suspect is at a scene or nearby
There is danger to life
A 101 call may be transferred to the 999/112 call handlers if it is deemed to be an emergency. A textphone service is available on 18001 101 for those who are deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired. All of these calls are routed to a National 101 operator who will determine the correct police force, and introduce the caller to the police operator.
Issues
101 is easily mistaken for NHS 111, which offers medical advice.
101 calls used to be chargeable at a flat rate of 15p per call, to the surprise of many people. This incentivised some people to call 999 when they could have called 101, contrary to an aim to encourage people to use 101 not 999 wherever appropriate. However, since 1 April 2020, it is now free to call 101.
Mobile phone users on a pay-as-you-go deal with an inclusive call and text allowance but no separate credit, which is most often the case, have been unable to make a 101 call. This could have led to them dialing 999 inappropriately or being forced to use a public phone box to make a 101 call.
Some media reports have highlighted cases where the response times to 101 calls has been slow.
The Daily Mail in December 2014 and The Telegraph in October 2015 reported on problems with the 101 service: for example over one million calls were abandoned or dropped in 2013, and some callers were waiting more than an hour to get through. The Daily Mail article reported "the average time taken to answer a call to Sussex Police's 101 line in June was nearly four minutes... Nearly half of forces failed to meet internal targets of answering calls within 30 seconds, according to the most recent figures".
Calls to the 101 number from a BT payphone have always been free of charge as BT decided to not amend the mechanism that applies a 60p minimum charge for chargeable calls. Before 1 April 2020, calls to 101 used to cost a fixed fee of 15 pence per call from landlines and mobiles, regardless of time of day or duration. This charge was waived by mobile provider giffgaff beginning the summer of 2018. Vodafone UK, the single supplier for the 101 service, waived the charge for pay-as-you-go customers from 1 June 2019. Both Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile waived the charge for calling 101 from mid 2019. The decision to scrap the 15p charge for all callers was announced on 28 May 2019 by the Home Office. From 1 April 2020, the vast majority of people can call 101 free of charge. However, from 1 April to 1 July there remains a chance that users of small operators will be charged for using the 101 service. The Home Office will be urging those providers to refund their customers.
History
Previously the police forces all had individual local phone numbers; the system made all police forces' non-emergency number 101. A pilot 101 system with joint Police and local authority call centres began in 2006. First introduced in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight for £3.3 million, the service was later extended Cardiff, Sheffield, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear and Leicester City and Rutland. The planned nationwide roll-out of the original service never took place and the trial itself was withdrawn from several areas after the withdrawal of Home Office funding. In 2009, the number was instead adopted as a straightforward non-emergency number by the four police forces in Wales, with the local authority element dropped. The number was then was rolled out across all English police forces between 2011 and 2012, and extended to Scotland in April 2013. The Police Service of Northern Ireland followed suit by adopting the 101 number on 24 March 2014.
