If life is in danger or a crime is in progress.

Note: The 101 service is part of a national programme to improve access to the police and will give the public an easy way to get in touch with the police for calls that do not require an urgent response. The system will work by redirecting people's calls, wherever they are in the country, to their nearest police force and is intended to be easier for people to remember. Callers using the number will incur a flat rate charge of 15p no matter how long the call lasts and whether their call is made from a landline or mobile. In an emergency, members of the public should continue to use 999.
Every year West Midlands Police receive more than four million telephone calls, including almost 700,000 emergency calls. Clearly it is impossible to attend all of these and, where possible, we will try to deal with some of them over the telephone.
Due to the high volume of calls, we operate a 'graded response' policy - where officers prioritise urgent calls and respond to those more quickly than others deemed non-emergencies.
An emergency / immediate response relates to an incident which is taking place and where there is, or is likely to be, a risk of:
We aim to attend an emergency incident within 15 minutes.