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What to do if you cannot speak.
Hundreds of thousands of silent 999 calls are made each year and police have been using the “silent solution” protocol for 15 years to help operators filter out accidental calls.
It is also intended to help people who are in danger or need assistance but cannot speak to an operator.
Here's how it works:
•If you ring 999 you will be asked which emergency service you require.
•If you do not say anything, the operator will ask you to cough or indicate in some other way if the call is an emergency.
•If you do not feel it is safe to make any noise (eg if you do not want to alert someone to your presence), then your call will be transferred to a system that will ask you to press 55 if your call is an emergency.
A police spokesman said: "Please do not think that just because you dial 999 that police will attend. We totally understand that sometimes people are unable or too afraid to talk, however it must be clear that we will not routinely attend a silent 999 call.
"There must be some indication that the call has not been misdialled.
“At Wiltshire Police our highly-trained staff often deal with silent 999 calls and their priority is always to ensure the safety of that caller.
"In some situations the caller cannot speak or is too frightened to answer so we can use this system as one way to differentiate between genuine emergency calls and those where the caller has misdialled or accidentally dialled 999.
“Remember, only dial 999 when a crime is in progress or it is an emergency situation."