A new live chat service for routine, non-emergency enquiries, launched on our website www.herts.police.uk this week.

The webchat provides answers to commonly asked questions, signposts to online support, and connects to an operator in our Force Communications Room (FCR) if more information is needed.  

It also offers improved auto-translation functionality – with more than 145 languages available – enabling the public to chat with the operator in their preferred language.

"It's important that people know they can contact police in different ways," said FCR Superintendent Jon Roche. "If it isn't an emergency, there's no need to wait on the phone, you can report online on our website or use our live chat, which has improved functionality, including auto-translate."

To use live chat, visit www.herts.police.uk and click the blue icon in the bottom right-hand corner. 

If you're worried about getting in touch with the police and need to end a webchat session at short notice, press the red 'Leave the site' button to close the page. You will then be redirected to Google and the history of your visit will be automatically cleared.

Supt Roche added: "Reporting non-emergency incidents online means you can report at a time most convenient for you. It also gives our call handlers more capacity to answer 999 emergency calls."

Each day, around 500 999 calls and 1,000 101 calls come into the constabulary's FCR at police headquarters in Welwyn Garden City. 

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A large number could be reported online rather than waiting on the phone. Online reports are assessed by our experienced call handlers – the same people who take 999 and 101 calls – and dealt with as if they were taking the report over the phone.

The website askthe.police.uk is a great starting point if you're not sure if it's a police matter.

You can report non-emergency crime, damage-only road traffic collisions and more online at www.herts.police.uk/report, speak to an operator in our FCR via our online web chat at www.herts.police.uk/contact or call the non-emergency number 101.