DEVON and Cornwall Police has improved the speed at which it answers 999 calls and responds to 101 non-emergency contact, new figures show.

Its response to calls had contributed to the police inspectorate putting the force into special measures in 2022. Although the force is still in special measures for how it records crime, it is no longer there over its call handling.

The new statistics show that in 2024, Devon and Cornwall Police answered 94.2 per cent of the 300,456 calls made to 999 within 10 seconds.

This was a rise from 88.4 per cent in 2023, and a big jump from just 66.7 per cent between November 2021 and the end of August 2022.

In the second half of 2024, the average wait time for 101 calls was three minutes and 43 seconds, almost 27 minutes quicker than the same period the previous year.

Devon and Cornwall Police also received 69,373 online reports in 2024. Across the whole year, the average wait time for a response was less than 12 hours. This dropped to just under five hours in December 2024.

The force said its switch from taking reports by email to an online form helped it save time by getting more thorough and accurate information more quickly.

“These rapid improvements in our handling of emergency and non-emergency contact from the public are proof of the continued hard work and dedication of officers and staff across all areas of the control room and at our front offices,” Assistant Chief Constable Nikki Leaper said.

“My hope is that we will continue to improve our contact with the public to ensure that victims receive the service they rightly deserve, and this will be felt across Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

“Our recent performance is excellent, but we will not be complacent.”