Edinburgh Police defend 101 raffle draw

Edinburgh Police have defended their decision to ask those who had an unclaimed raffle prize to dial 101.
Police defended their raffle tweet. Image; John DevlinPolice defended their raffle tweet. Image; John Devlin
Police defended their raffle tweet. Image; John Devlin

Police asked members of the public that had the winning raffle numbers to call 101 and “ask to be put through to Pip”.

The raffle had taken place on Saturday and unclaimed tickets have been placed on social media to try and encourage those who could have won to come forward.

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Following criticism, the force insisted that 101 is the non-emergency number for the public to use and that they had “appropriate resources in place to handle these inquiries”.

Last year Lamara Bell lay trapped in a car for three days after police failed to respond to a 101 call. She died in hospital four days after she was eventually found by police.

Police Scotland said on its Facebook page: “101 is and will remain our one and only number for the public to contact us in a non-emergency situation and our control room is staffed appropriately to facilitate these calls.

“Every day we receive thousands of 101 calls for a range of subjects and inquiries and it is part of a call-handler’s daily business to speak with the public, establish what the nature of their call is and progress it accordingly.”