Sponsored by
Special Report: Behind the scenes at Peterborough’s Police Support Centre
Staff at the Police Service Centre in Thorpe Wood, Peterborough. Photo: Paul Franks/Peterborough ET
A COMPLAINT that a pizza had gone cold is just one of a handful of ridiculous requests for police action made to the new non-emergency 101 telephone line.
Since May last year the Police Support Centre (PSC), in Thorpe Wood, Peterborough, has handled all non-999 calls to Cambridgeshire police.
The centre was initially criticised for failing to answer thousands of calls a day when a switchboard was eliminated from the system as part of budget cuts, but hard work and training has turned the figures around.
Before the change, the PSC regularly answered 95 per cent of calls within 30 seconds but in May last year that dropped to just 49 per cent.
In the same month 14.8 per cent of callers gave up waiting to be put through. This month the figure has dropped to three per cent.
But there is nothing they can do about frivolous calls for police help – one caller wanted a budgie cage moved, for example – that waste call handlers’ time which could be spent dealing with a crime.
PSC manager Tracy Blackwood said: “Before the cuts the PSC was dealing with about 650 calls per day. Since May we take up to 2,300 calls.
“We have also reduced staff by 15 operators.
“Everyone is well aware of what’s happened with our performance but we’ve worked really hard to improve.
“We are still training some of our staff, but it takes time and we can’t do everyone at once.
“So we hope to continue to improve. We are not just answering the telephone, it’s considered a critical area of service.”
Before the cutbacks in May last year there was a switchboard system putting callers through to the relevant department.
In some cases that would be to the PSC while in many others it would simply put the caller through to a named individual.
Now, though, all calls go through to the PSC where trained staff will divert callers to named individuals, log a complaint or even raise a crime report and start the investigation.
A new system of voice recognition is currently being tested and could be rolled out shortly.
This will mean anyone calling to contact a specific person can be put through without the need for an operator.
This will free up the call handlers to spend more time on crime reports, logging incidents and answering calls.
But some situations are not easy to predict, such as daft callers, unforeseen spikes in calls or major incidents.
Ms Blackwood said: “We know there are certain times when we get more calls. At the moment our peak times are from 8am to 6pm but that could change.
“You also get fewer calls in winter, with spikes at Halloween.
“But we can’t predict things like an accident on the A14 which might see lots of people calling in at the same time.
“We can’t control when the calls come through. On some days the calls might be spread out.
“On the following day we could get the same number of calls but all at the same time.
“There’s nothing we or the public can do about that.”
The improved figures have been welcomed by Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson.
He said: “This is good news. It seems to be going in the right direction.
“People are getting to grips with the new 101 number. Well done to the police for taking on the concerns and improving their performance.”
Support centre is making strides around
IN March 2011 the PSC answered 94 per cent calls in 30 seconds, which plummeted to 49 per cent in May.
In June and July it was 57 per cent; August 66 per cent; September 71 per cent; October 72 per cent; November 76 per cent; December 81 per cent; and January 84 per cent.
The number of abandoned calls has also been falling. In May it was 14.8 per cent; June 14 per cent; July 15 per cent; August 7.9 per cent; September 5.7 per cent; October 5.5 per cent; November 4.5 per cent; December 3 per cent and January 3 per cent.
What do you think about the new service?
Contact our news team by email news@peterboroughtoday.co.uk, telephone 01733 588719, on Twitter - @peterboroughet or use our Have Your Say form
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
Comments
There are 2 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
Lazy Daisy
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 09:45 AMWhy not put the inappropriate calls through to a special call taker who will get the details of the caller, explain why their call is a waste of police time and warn them that a second call of this nature will result in prosecution.
Kermit
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 06:55 PMSpecial Constables are fully trained volunteers with all the powers of a regular Constable, and they provide an excellent additional resource, usually at times of peak demand. I see no reason why a similar scheme could not be extended to use volunteers in Police Control Centres and in CCTV Control Centres to ensure a similar good service.
Page 1 of 1
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.