Police hire staff to cut phone wait

North Yorkshire Police are to recruit more staff so phone calls from members of the public are answered more quickly.

It follows criticism about the length of time it has taken some people to get through to the force.

The police say they answer more than half of emergency calls in under five seconds, with non-urgent calls being picked up in 20 seconds.

But Deputy Chief Constable Peter Walker says there are occasions when some people do have to wait longer.

He said: "There have been periods when the performance has been very good.

"There have been other periods, and now is one of them, when the service has not been as good because of the amount of demand that people put on it.

"Therefore we look at the system and change the process.

"In this case we are recruiting 40 more staff to meet the needs of the North Yorkshire public."