West Midlands Police have significantly improved their response times to emergency 999 and non-emergency 101 calls, according to recent figures presented in the Police and Crime Commissioner’s annual report.
Simon Foster, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, revealed the enhancements during a meeting of the West Midlands Police and Crime Panel earlier this week. The data highlights faster call answering and quicker dispatch to incidents across the region.
The proportion of 999 calls answered within the national target of 10 seconds rose to 97 per cent for the year ending March 2026, up from 92.9 per cent in March 2024. Meanwhile, 101 call response rates within three minutes have jumped to 95.7 per cent compared with 75.5 per cent two years earlier.
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Response times to emergency incidents also showed remarkable gains. The percentage of emergency responses arriving within 15 minutes increased from 58.7 per cent in 2024 to 79.3 per cent in 2026. Priority responses within one hour improved from 41.1 per cent to 72.8 per cent in the same period.
The report attributes these improvements to the introduction of a new call handling model. It states that during 2025/26, West Midlands Police answered 99.9 per cent of 731,379 emergency 999 calls, with average answer times falling from five seconds to just two seconds. Abandoned emergency calls were reduced by 86.3 per cent, indicating better public access to critical services.
Non-emergency contact also benefitted from quicker engagement, with average 101 waiting times decreasing from two minutes 14 seconds to 30 seconds. Police response times similarly improved; the median emergency response was cut from 12 minutes 44 seconds to 9 minutes 43 seconds, representing a 23.7 per cent improvement. The median priority response time was nearly halved, falling from one hour two minutes 39 seconds to 35 minutes 28 seconds.
Compliance with key national standards for answering and attendance consistently increased, reflecting a sustained enhancement in how West Midlands Police engage with and support the public.
These advances demonstrate the force’s ongoing commitment to improving emergency service accessibility and efficiency across the West Midlands area.