Police says this summer was its busiest on record

A police force said it experienced its busiest summer on record due to an almost 10% hike in 999 calls and a major rise in control room inquiries.

Norfolk Police said demand reached its highest peak, with its contact and control room receiving 42,175 urgent 999 calls between June and August, compared to 38,370 during the same period in 2025.

Department head Supt Sutherland Lane said it was hard to pinpoint what had caused the rise, and it was down to a "combination of factors".

He said seven police officers were moved into the control centre to help, and the force was now recruiting 20 more controllers.

Sutherland said: "We had the World Cup going on... and England were getting further and further through.

"We had the heatwave coming in, which probably drove additional people to visit Norfolk.

"[We] have seen population increase - year on year by about 2%.

"Later on in the summer, we've had drought, fires - that heatwave continuing - and again, more people coming to coastal regions.

"All of those things together have driven that particular increase in demand this year."

The increase in summer demand has been further highlighted by the overall total of 999 calls, 101 non-emergency calls, online reports and email inquiries received by the force.

Norfolk Police's communication officers handled 136,037 contacts over the three-month summer period, up by 10,888 on last year.

Colin Sutton, the Reform UK Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Norfolk, said: "When the weather's nice, people come, and we've had more people here this year.

"Tourism is working really well, and that's good for local businesses and local communities. More people means more calls for police, and that's not always about crime; it's about calls for assistance."

He said he would like to achieve officers having more time to complete "police tasks" as it will mean "better response times it means better engagement with the public".

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