Essex Police urge people to go online to get the right help with their live chat service

Essex Police are asking the public to think about how to contact them as they anticipate more demand for their services this summer.

They receive more than 100 enquiries every day on their live chat and are seeing numbers rise over the summer months.

Live chat is available 24/7 on the force's website.

They say it provides the same service as calling 101, yet say it allows them to arrange the appropriate help more quickly.

Chief Inspector Stuart Rawlings, from Contact Management Command, said:

"Since Live Chat became a 24-hours-a-day service in 2024 we’ve seen it used more every year.

"At the start of the summer we asked the public to ‘Stop, Think and Choose’ and we’re seeing the difference in our control room as we see more calls in a warm and busy summer in Essex.

"Thanks to those members of the public doing so – it means we can help those with 999 emergencies more quickly and make Essex safer.

"It’s always a challenging job for our staff and officers in Contact Management but the public are doing their part and we’re asking them to keep up the good work.”

A new AI-powered chat service has been launched on the force's live chat - called Agent Bobbi.

It assists anyone with non-emergency enquiries before connecting the public to a human call handler.

Ch Insp Rawlings added: “Following other forces’ pilot schemes for the rollout of Agent Bobbi and seeing the success they’ve had, we’re now introducing it in Essex.

“Colleagues in Thames Valley Police and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary saw 45% of their Live Chat queries answered by Bobbi in their six-month trial.

“That would mean hundreds of hours saved for my team, improving our emergency call response which is more important than ever in the busy summer months.

“I can reassure everyone that you can still speak to a specially-trained call handler if you need us – and thanks to this change we can do that even faster.”