Force appeals for public to use social media to help manage demand

Staffordshire Police is appealing for members of the public to use social media to report crimes or get in touch, where possible, as demand increases during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Supt Carl Ratcliffe, Head of Contact and Response, said: “We are here to protect you and prevent crime and we will continue to do that, but we are kindly requesting that wherever possible – and to help us deal with rising call levels – you use social media channels to get in touch with us.

“Our officers and staff are part of our communities and have also been affected by the outbreak and related issues and we understand how difficult this situation feels. That is why we are kindly asking you to help us so we can keep our communities safe at this time.

“We still expect people to contact us via 999 for urgent/ongoing incidents, but please think before calling us on 101. For general enquiries and to report non-urgent crime or incidents you can do this quickly, and discreetly online via www.staffordshire.police.uk/report-online or via our official Staffordshire Police social media channels on Facebook and Twitter.”