The challenge

Police Forces are under increasing pressure to be ever more responsive to contacts from the public. Responding to emergency calls requiring a presence from the police has meant that all forces have Command & Control systems in place for genuine 999 calls.  But such calls represent only a portion of the total contacts received by the police.

The growth in the use of mobile phones and the public’s expectations that the police can be called on to answer questions on all sort of topics has meant a huge growth in the number of calls. While the Command & Control system remains the primary method for recording these calls it can become overstretched recording types of calls it was never designed to deal with – with the risk that genuine emergency calls are not as visible as required.  Call Handlers need to be able to deal more efficiently and effectively with calls; those requiring an immediate police presence, those requiring local follow-up and response and those that can be wrapped-up at the first point of contact.