Speedier response to 999 alerts (From Gazette & Herald)

Speedier response to 999 alerts

8:13am Monday 24th September 2012 in News By Jennifer Bell, jennifer.bell@thepress.co.uk

Iain Spittal: Welcomed figures

EMERGENCY calls to North Yorkshire police are being answered significantly faster than a year ago, according to a new report.

The force’s switch from two control rooms to one last year saw the number of 999 calls taken within a ten-second target time fall from 94 per cent to 77 per cent in the space of a year.

But new figures have shown response times have become more rapid with the force answering 93.9 per cent of their 17,155 emergency calls within ten seconds between April and June this year - compared to 82.7 per cent in the same period last year.

The force’s target is to answer 90 per cent of their 999 calls within the ten second timeframe, and a report, set to go before a meting of the North Yorkshire Police Authority next week, show police have hit this target for the fourth month running.

The average time it took the force to answer an emergency call between the three-month period was 4.6 seconds compared with 7.7 seconds last year.

And 86.6 percent of all non-emergency calls to North Yorkshire Police operators were answered within the 30-second target time.

Assistant Chief Constable Iain Spittal, author of the report, welcomed the figures, describing them as a “significant improvement”.

He said: “The introduction of the Automated Switchboard in November 2011 has had a significant impact on NYP’s ability to improve emergency call performance.

“Daily performance is frequently over 95 per cent with levels in excess of 98 per cent becoming increasingly common.” The control room is now taking 1,200 fewer calls a day following the introduction of an automated switchboard, allowing callers to select a “public enquirer” option to report an incident or an operator to step in if necessary.