There's a thing ongoing up here at the moment whereby an idea has been floated (by a local police federation rep no less) that 999 calls are to be charged at a premium (50p a pop?) rate rather than free as is at the mo.
In my opinion and experience we have shot our collective selves in the foot with the drive towards call centres and efficiency in that local folks no longer know the number for the local nick and can't be arsed with the 0845whatever (only 50 pee a minute.... ) one.
Plus, call centre peeps do not know local names for roads, junctions, people or whatever and valuable time is lost in trying to ascertain the truth if the matter.
As a result the 999 system gets overloaded with the assorted run out of bog paper/dog got a temperature/some shit on Facebook called me a knob/neighbours parked outside in my parking space shit or similar.
Bottom line - would you prefer free or charged 999 calls?
...... and discuss..