Recent analyses of emergency calls for service data in the United States suggest that as little as 50% of police time on scene is spent on crime-related calls for service. The remainder of time is spent in a social service capacity: attending well-being checks and resolving community issues, amongst others. Findings have important implications for deployment decisions, officer training, public perceptions of the police and the distribution of public funds towards (or away) from law enforcement. Yet, no such investigation has been undertaken in the Netherlands and measures of ‘demand’ (e.g., officer time) in the existing international literature remain simplistic. In this study, we have two aims. First, to describe the scale and composition of emergency calls for service demand in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Second, to examine the extent to which different calculations of ‘police time spent’ on calls are sensitive to how time is defined and calculated. ...