Police Scotland removed more than 100,000 recorded public calls

Around 115,000 recorded calls for police Scotland’s non-Fall 101 line have been removed due to technical mistake.

BBC Scotland News has learned that the problem was discovered in February 2025.

It is understood that the value of one month for the line was recorded and maintained for four weeks, but then not stored.

Police Scotland states that the mistake was quickly recovering and did not affect the ability to respond to 101 calls or affect 999 emergency calls.

Police Scotland website says that 101 line should be used to contact the police while reporting non-fruitful events.

Of these examples include stolen cars, suspected drug dealing or minor traffic conflicting reporting.

The calls for the 101 line are meant to record and store the calls and at the later date, complaints against the police, legal proceedings, or when a member of the public presents requests to reach their data, can be used.

Although the call recording was removed, police Scotland says that information like call, duration, caller number and discussion of discussed details of discussion and end time are still available.

According to police scotland data, 101 lines received more than 100,000 calls every month between January 2024 and November 2024.

Supte Gordon Fotheringam said: “In February 2025, a technical mistake was detected on the 101 non-pair call recording platforms, which means that 101 were unable to regain the amount of call recording.

“The mistake was quickly corrected and did not affect the ability to respond to 101 calls. It did not affect the emergency 999 call line at any time.

“On further investigation, it was confirmed that 101 calls were not collected, while the call data was still available.

“A new recording system has been implemented since then reduces the risk of any future technical defects and increases flexibility in our telephony structure.”