A police force has received more than 200,000 calls inquiring about 60 jobs.
North Yorkshire Police’s phone line crashed on Monday, the first day of its recruitment campaign for officers, after it received 20,000 calls.
A new number was then issued and more than 200,000 people have since called, the BBC reported.
The news of the interest comes after forces across the country revealed last week that they had created waiting lists of officer recruits who had passed the initial assessment stages, and were now being made to wait up to a year for an officer position to become available.
The Met Police currently has 2,000 recruits on its waiting list who have been told they will not get an officer position until 2011, while West Midlands Police has 240, and both Cleveland and Gloucestershire have about 100.
The demand in North Yorkshire was so great that senior officers, including chief constable Grahame Maxwell, helped to take some calls.
Briggs said: “We have had an incredible response to the recruitment campaign and it was nice to be able get involved and lend a hand.”
A force spokesman said: “Regrettably, unforeseen technical difficulties occurred as a result of this unprecedented overwhelming demand.”
Emergency calls were not affected by the phone line disruption.
