POLICE are urging people to not hang up if they accidently dial 999.

The rise of smartphone use in recent years has seen forces experience more abandoned calls.

Superintendent Pete Browning, head of contact management for Dorset Police, said 10 per cent of 999 calls were now abandoned before someone has spoken to a call handler.

The checks and efforts to trace the people who made these calls to ensure they are okay can often take 20 minutes or more.

Over the course of a day two members of full-time staff end up trying to deal with abandoned calls.

While in some cases this will be out of the callers control, many will be people who have accidentally phoned emergency services and immediately hung up.

“It is difficult with the pocket dials because no one does that on purpose but is just a question of being a little bit careful with your phone,” Superintendent Browning said.

“If you do dial 999 and for whatever reason you terminate that call before the call taker answers it, such as you see police turning up I can end the call, we have got a 999 call recorded and we need to try and phone you back.

“If you put the phone back in your pocket and it is on silent, you don’t hear it and pick it up, we have then got to go through a series of checks.

“Has this phone number called us before, do we know who it is, we contact the call provider to ask who is subscribed to this number, can we do eastings and northings to find out the location.

“That is all to try to identify has that person been seriously harmed or has the call been interrupted because they are no longer able to make the call.

“We ask please stay on the line until you speak to someone. We are not going to be angry with you, it is just an accident.”