Northumbria Police received 20,000 messages during disorder in Sunderland

The average month sees around 15,000 social media reports made to Northumbria Police through the social media reporting platform Orlo.

However 20,000 messages were sent to the force in just two days when disorder hit the North East and other parts of the UK, it has been revealed.

Towns and cities across the UK, including Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Darlington and Hartlepool, were engulfed by street violence between July 30 and August 7. The disorder followed a fatal knife attack in Southport which claimed the lives of three children, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine.

In response to how the online system coped with the influx, Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Susan Dungworth said: “It coped all right and it actually took some of the strain off the 101 service. It’s being responded to and logged.

“I would be lying if I said all our emergency services weren’t stretched because they were, but they coped. We didn’t have any rest days in the police force for I think at least three weeks, now they are taking it back in a way that is dealable.

“That is the reassurance I would always give, I will always argue for more resources for more people but we can keep people safe with what we have got.”

The Orlo system, which is backed up by human responders rather than automated systems, also allows people to submit evidence easily online including video footage and photographs. Orlo also helps police forces use online reports to identify any hotspot areas and gather intelligence. The software is used by three-quarters of UK constabularies and 30% of local councils.

PCC Susan Dungworth added: “All of our staff in the contact centres are trained to deal with whatever, so they can do 999 calls if that is where the pressure is at in any one time, they can do 101 or the online stuff. It is not about having separate people, it is about moving your resources there and then.”