Inappropriate use of 999 or not?

Orionaut

Orionaut

Orionaut

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http://home.bt.com/news/odd-news/po...h-guzzling-seagull-in-999-call-11363993912244

On the one hand it seems absurd that anybody would call the emergency number over this.

(And the Police certainly seem to think so)

On the other hand, we have a large aggressive animal attacking people, and one which is perfectly capable of doing serious damage to anybody who it might attack, and somebody has reported it.

If it was a Dog going around biting people at random the Police would (I imagine) be perfectly happy about somebody dialling 999 over the incident.

Do the Police consider a Dog attack as being fundamentally more serious than an attack by a seagull?? (People have been seriously injured by aggressive seagulls)

Or is it possibly a more cynical issue whereby Dogs have owners who can be prosecuted, however seagulls are wild so there is no opportunity for attending officers to put additional notches on their pistols!?? :/
 
Orionaut said:
Do the Police consider a Dog attack as being fundamentally more serious than an attack by a seagull?? (People have been seriously injured by aggressive seagulls)

Or is it possibly a more cynical issue whereby Dogs have owners who can be prosecuted, however seagulls are wild so there is no opportunity for attending officers to put additional notches on their pistols!?? :/
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Quite simply yes. Dogs can do much more damage and there's actual legislation (Dangerous Dogs Act) which mean it's a Police issue. Seagulls are a local authority issue and not a police one.
 
It stole his sandwich. This is a ridiculous waste of resources.

I'm too hungover to think of funny sandwich and seagull puns :p so an angry rant is all you're going to get.
 
Yeah, that's not an appropriate use of 999 in my opinion - it can be hard to decide though.

Case in point, I called 999 just the other night.

Someone was going through the communal bins outside our block of flats (4 or 5 biffa bins) and was looking propper scared of being caught. At first I thought he was just looking for hardware (they're quite big so people will throw in old desks and tables) so I was just going to give him a wee shout to give him a fright then laugh it off.

That was until he turned on a flashlight to look in the bins.

Was a young guy and didn't look homeless, so tossed up between calling the non emergency number and 999 directly. Made the decision to call 999 when I saw him pull out some papers from a black bag. They let me know it was the right thing to do and had a unit near by - stayed up to watch them chase him down while he tried to make off with bags of stuff and his bike. Good times.

(EDIT: I say chase, he kind of stumbled and they told him to stop and he did - little anticlimactic but they took him and his bike away in the van.)
 
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I wouldn't have called 999 I don't think. Probably wouldn't have even bothered with 101. I did call 101 the other day to report erratic driving though, followed a car back to my village which was veering all over the place, even then I felt like I was wasting their time, not because they didn't take it seriously, just because it feels like such a small issue.
 
Police also highlighted the case of the dozy car thief.

They wrote: "Thanks to the car thief who changed his profile picture on Facebook to one of him sat in a stolen vehicle! #busted #ASP24"
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Pwnd. :D
 
999 is for potential loss of life, and ongoing crimes.

Given that a seagull can't commit an offence in law yet, it's not a 999-worthy offence.

Ergo, he's an idiot and should be fined for wasting Police time.
 
matt_fsr said:
999 is for potential loss of life, and ongoing crimes.
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I can't actually find a link to prove me right, so feel free to prove me wrong. But I thought you can call 999 if "a crime is being committed or is about to be committed". Therefore for example RoyMi6 is correct to call 999 as the guy is about to steal some stuff.

My girlfriend once called the police as she was walking home past the shops, and there was a massive argument going on by the off-license. The owner had barricaded himself inside the door whilst a mentalist was trying to break down the door saying all sorts like he was going to stab him, kill him etc. My girlfriend was a bit unsure if it was just a run-of-the-mill argument that would blow over, but she called 999. The guy feasibly could have had a knife or whatever and done something with it. It's funny that we're so afraid of wasting police time that we'd almost not call for something like that.

As for the stories in those links, I think it's a bit unfair to pull out those examples. In most cases the people who called are most like mentally ill, or have issues etc. Nobody of sound mind is going to call the police over a seatbelt being too tight etc.
 
you had the choice of all of this clickbait and you chose to post about a seagull??!? OP, plz, I want to know about the shocking govermnent cash incentive, or who the most attractive 'larger' celebrity is!



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Massive waste of Police/999 time. At best he should have had a rant on Facebook, nothing more. Madness.
 
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