People who call to complain about their neighbours could face a contact ban for wasting police resources, a police force has said.
In a social media post on the weekend, North Wales police (NWP) said they had responded to four antisocial behaviour callouts in 24 hours for disputes such as “neighbours who don’t put their bins away or kids playing in the garden making too much noise during the day”.
The calls created a large demand on the force, it said.
“If it’s not criminal and you continue to cause a demand on North Wales police when you have been advised the matter is not criminal – we seek orders to stop you contacting us.
“It sounds harsh, but we have a LOT of crime to deal with, and our resources need to be focused on this.”
Trivial calls are a problem for police nationwide: last year, the Met said only 15% of 999 calls were genuine emergencies. Recorded calls included a person with a spider in their room, a dog that wouldn’t come back inside a house, and no-show delivery drivers.
Greater Manchester police have issued several pleas to the public in recent years after receiving emergency calls about a train station ticket machine taking someone’s change, a late takeaway delivery, and a complaint about a retail company’s returns policy.
NWP’s decision to seek contact ban orders for repeat offenders is believed to be a UK first.
The Victim Support charity said contact bans could send the message that “victims’ experiences don’t matter” and “victims may fear they’ll get into trouble for contacting the police about incidents they deem to be ‘trivial’”.
Jessica Brooks, the area manager for Victim Support Wales, said: “Antisocial behaviour can have a devastating impact on people’s quality of life, often leaving victims feeling anxious, isolated and frightened. An incident that seems relatively small or unimportant to begin with can quickly escalate and become very serious. Feeling unable to report this – or any other incident, crime or emergency – could have serious repercussions.”
The NWP chief constable, Amanda Blakeman, said: “The cause of ASB [antisocial behaviour] is complex, and we will always look towards prevention and engagement, while dealing with targeted and persistent reports. We will always address ASB of a criminal nature, although certain complaints are dealt with by local authorities.
“Tackling this issue and understanding concerns locally is important to us.”
A 2024 government-backed review into police productivity estimated that more than 3.4m officer hours a year could be saved if forces across England, Wales and Northern Ireland moved to more cost-efficient “model process tools” for dealing with demands for service related to antisocial behaviour and burglaries.
Members of the public should only dial 999 if there is a threat to life, someone is in immediate danger, or a crime is in progress or has just been committed, the police said.
