HERTFORDSHIRE Constabulary has released recordings of genuine 999 calls received by the emergency call centre. Some, like the man who asks the police for a lift home, might make you chuckle. Others, like the person who phones in a hoax stabbing, might lea

HERTFORDSHIRE Constabulary has released recordings of genuine 999 calls received by the emergency call centre.

Some, like the man who asks the police for a lift home, might make you chuckle.

Others, like the person who phones in a hoax stabbing, might leave you shocked at how somebody could find it amusing to waste police time in such a way.

For police in Hertfordshire, however, the message is clear: 999 is for emergencies only, and anyone found making hoax calls to the police will be prosecuted.

Speaking at Friday's launch of the new campaign to cut down on hoax and inappropriate calls to the emergency line, Superintendent Rob Henry, manager of the force's contact management centre, said: "You cannot bar your number on a 999 call.

"We know the number you're calling from. We know exactly where you are and exactly where you're from, and we're going to do all we can to prosecute you. Stop wasting the system."

Statistics released last week show that from September 2008 to March of this year, Hertfordshire Constabulary received 2,366 hoax telephone calls and 26,783 inappropriate phone calls.

In Welwyn Hatfield, 230 hoax calls were made, along with 2,512 inappropriate calls.

And in Hertsmere, there were 208 hoax calls and 2,085 inappropriate calls made in the same period of time.

Although the number of hoax and inappropriate calls has decreased, police have said they want the number to continue dropping - which is why they've released the recordings, to make people aware of the sort of calls that should not be made.

The recordings feature both hoax calls - where someone has phoned the police deliberately with a fake emergency - and inappropriate calls, when someone mistakenly calls 999 for the wrong reasons.