POLICE have urged members of the public to continue phoning in to report incidents and crimes although people need to be more ‘realistic’ about the level of response they receive.

It has long been recognised that police resources are stretched to the limit and not all calls from the public might go to the top of the priority list straight away, if ever.

But Sgt Jon O’Connor, of Wellington Police, told local councillors it was important that people still contacted them with information so that officers could use it for analysis and intelligence gathering.

“We still want people contacting us with information so we know what is going on in the area,” he told members of Wellington Town Council.

“We do not want people suffering in silence – so please continue to get in touch with us.”

But, he added that people needed to ‘manage expectations’ on the sort of response they received from police and how quickly.

His advice came after Cllr Sean Pringle-Kosikowsky asked whether people should still contact the police, knowing how busy they currently are in dealing with protests up and down the country.

Cllr Andrew Govier had earlier thanked the police for all their efforts locally and nationally following a string of violent protests after three girls died in a knife attack at a dance class in Southport, near Liverpool.

“We support the police and they have our support in taking action to stop trouble in Wellington and Rockwell Green,” added Cllr Govier.