North Yorkshire Police are going public with the thousands of calls which come into the force control room in the hope people will only ring 999 in a genuine emergency.

For twelve hours from this afternoon, Friday, August 19, the force is holding a tweetathon, publicising calls that come in via social media site Twitter.

The last time all calls were broadcast in this way, issues included a missing kebab, a naked man at the scene of a car crash in Northallerton and a couple having an intimate moment behind a Scarborough Hotel. All the calls coming in will be tweeted through the hashtag #NYPfor12.

The aim is to show members of the public the volume of calls and incidents that the force deals with on a typical Friday in summer. Call volumes have soared in recent years. In July the force had a record 33,221 calls, 10,940 of them 999 emergency calls.

Superintendent Jason Dickson, the force's head of customer contact, said: "As well as dealing with members of the public, control room staff also deploy police officers and take control of incidents.

“The tweetathon is always popular as it shows the public the variety of calls our officers deal with daily. I hope that publicly highlighting the volume of incidents encourages people to think about the importance of only using 999 if it’s a genuine emergency.

“Friday, and the weekend, are expected to be busy, but I am confident that our dedicated team are well-rehearsed and prepared for what’s ahead. I would like to thank the force control room team for their high levels of commitment and professionalism at a time when we are seeing exceptional demand.”

“It is not appropriate to ring 999 because your taxi hasn’t arrived or because you’ve got a complaint about a pizza you’ve bought or because you can’t get hold of the service you need. We are an emergency service, and it is vital that we are able to respond to those who need us most.

“There are a significant number of calls that come through to us unnecessarily. We also receive many calls where the caller has accidently ‘pocket dialled’ us or given their phone to a child who accidently calls our emergency number. In this instance, our communications officers must spend time calling the person back to check it is not a genuine emergency. This means they are unavailable to answer incoming calls.

“We take hundreds of calls every day and want to be able to deliver an exemplary service to everyone who contacts us.

“But these nuisance or misdirected calls may stop us from getting help for a vulnerable person in need so all we would ask is that you think twice before picking up the phone and ringing the police on 999 if it is not an emergency.”