Pledge on police call problems (From Gazette & Herald)

Pledge on police call problems

A TOP North Yorkshire police officer has pledged to turn around the force's struggling call handling system within months.

Deputy Chief Constable Peter Walker said the recruitment of 40 new telephone operators will bring the total number of call-handling staff to more than 200 by September.

He said the force aims to answer 999 calls within five seconds - but non-urgent callers will have to change their habits, by calling at quiet times, or by being prepared to wait.

"It's just like the health service. They deal with heart attacks quickly; if you have a common cold then you will have to wait and see your GP," he said.

"If it is an urgent call, it's urgent. There's a real difficulty and anybody will recognise that we have to prioritise and focus on the most urgent cases and we are unremitting about that."

His comments come after a damning new report, following an inspection by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of the Constabulary, which found the telephone system was consistently letting down members of the public and officers.

It blames these "significant problems" on poor shift patterns that do not match peak demand, lack of staff support, inadequate computer technology and "unsophisticated" complaint management.

Mr Walker said North Yorkshire Police is responding to all the inspector's recommendations by employing and training new staff and replacing the archaic computer system.

He said civilian staff had begun handling emergency calls for the first time and a designated crime recording bureau is being established to filter work away from front-line call handlers.

"There's an expectation that non-urgent calls will be answered like your home telephone, but it's not like that because we get thousands of calls a week," he said.

"We are receiving more calls than ever before and the more accessible we make the force the more demand there is. But we do need the information."

The independent police report, conducted in January by Ken Williams, criticises North Yorkshire Police for failing to improve call-handling performance.

Mr Williams said: "Whilst the force has experienced significant difficulties with call management, it still has a good deal to do to bring the service up to levels expected by the public and front line officers."

Updated: 09:41 Wednesday, July 09, 2003