Quick - dial 101!

Have you seen this idea of having a separate telephone number for "non-emergency" calls to the Police? The idea is to take some of the pressure off the 999 service. Seems quite a sensible move, until you realise that calls to this new number (101 has been suggested) will not be free, as 999 calls are. So we shall have to pay for the privilege of doing our duty as good citizens and reporting matters to the Police. And I wouldn't mind betting that it will only be a matter of time before calling 999 when you should have used the other service will result in some sort of penalty - and who is to decide which service is appropriate anyway? You wonder why they can't simply put more resources into the 999 system if it can't cope with the volume of calls - the answer, I suspect, is money.