THE South Worcestershire superintendent has said the police must “prioritise the most harmful” emergency calls after city residents criticised slow response times.

Superintendent Damian Pettit has said his colleagues have received an average of 1,500 calls per day this month and “it will not be possible for us to attend every incident as it occurs”.

We reported earlier this week about a spate of vandal attacks to cars in Topham Avenue, Warndon Villages, on Saturday morning, with residents commenting about frustrating response times.

Simon Holden said police are “busy chasing the wrong people” and he is “still waiting for a response after my side mirrors have been smashed for the fifth time”.

Sheila English said it took an hour and a half for police to respond after someone “bricked our front windows and two of our cars” while they were parked on the drive last month.

“Hundreds of pounds of damage not to mention insurances will go up,” she continued.

“The brick that went through the window missed my dog inside by inches.”

She said she would set up CCTV now.

Colin Rees said the lack of police action to crimes like vandalism have led people Problem is they know they will get away with it

Supt Pettit went on to say, due to the high volume of calls, threats to life or other incidents needing emergency response must be prioritised.

He said: “Unfortunately, it will not be possible for us to attend every incident as it occurs, and I am very sorry to have learned about the damage caused to people’s property – for which they have worked hard for.”

He said that non-emergency response calls are, however, “continually assessed around the availability of resources”.

“I believe that we have the public's support to make informed decisions and how best to use the resource we have to keep people safe from harm,” continued Supt Pettit. “We seek to reassure victims and support them where they need or wish us to.”

He said safer neighbourhood teams work within the community to solve problems in a “systematic and multi-agency way”.

“It is really important to understand what is impacting upon our communities and I would encourage reporting, so the scale of any problem can be identified and, together, solved.”

If anyone would like to experience what the policing teams achieve each day, see details on the Ride Along Scheme for further information.