2 HOUR WAIT FOR COPS TO ANSWER

Police under fire over lengthy delays on 101 number, while one emergency call is not picked up for 10 MINUTES

- NORMAN SILVESTER

MEMBERS of the public have been made to wait more than two hours for calls to a new police phone system to be answered, a whistleblower has claimed.

It was also reported that emergency 999 calls to the force were not being picked up for more than four minutes.

Yesterday, the Record revealed how senior officers were forced to set up a "critical incident" response after there were major delays following its launch on November 25.

Calls to the non-emergency 101 system were initially taking up to 40 minutes before someone picked up.

Emergency 999 calls normally answered in under 10 seconds - were taking up to 50 seconds to get a response.

But the Record has learned that on Wednesday, 101 calls were taking up to two hours and 25 seconds to answer, while for 999 calls, the figure was four minutes and 29 seconds.

On Tuesday, one 999 call took nine minutes and 40 seconds to get a response, according to the insider.