Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner has agreed with the Chief Constable’s recommendation to move to one police control room. The move also supports the policy to return officers to operational roles – meaning that 37 officers will be back on the beat.
The development of a single control room in Staffordshire ultimately will see a raft of fully trained officers back out in local communities being visible and dealing face to face with local people.
Currently staff dealing with calls from the public are spread over two locations, one at Hanley Police Station and the other in Stafford at Police headquarters on Weston Rd. The move to a single control room will see staff all based at one location at the headquarters site.
Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis said: “Getting officers visible and out and about in communities doing frontline policing is the heart of my five year strategy to reduce crime and help communities to feel safer as well as being safer.
“This latest decision is very much part of that but it’s also part of my focus on improving customer service and the experience people have when dealing with Staffordshire Police. Through alignment of staff we will see increased capacity to develop a more consistent approach and a better service to the public using the 999 and 101 service.”
Chief Constable Mike Cunningham said: “We are constantly working to ensure that the services we provide to our communities are the best they can be. The demand on our services are constantly changing and evolving and we have a duty to ensure that we review the way we deliver the service to suit the needs of the community.
“Answering calls from the public quickly and efficiently is of vital importance to us, in fact we normally answer 999 calls in 2.3 seconds and 101 non-emergency calls in less than 10 seconds.
“This move will ensure greater consistency of service and better resilience but importantly maintain the local knowledge which is vital to policing. The relatively small numbers of staff affected by the move to a single room have been consulted with and we expect the vast majority of staff will be moving to the single room.
“The only difference we expect the public to see is an improvement in the service and speed of how we handle calls, however the benefits within the force will be significant. The duty inspector will have a better oversight of all the issues being dealt with by the force and with the improvements being made to the systems, the controllers will able to dispatch the nearest and most appropriate police resources. Having the expertise, skills, system, and staff to support the officers delivering the front line police service to the public of Staffordshire will further improve the service we provide.”
Matthew Ellis added: “Customer service is central to making the system work and satisfying people. The new GPS technology that’s coming early next year will make a big difference, pin pointing exactly where officers are and letting staff in the control room send the right officer to the most appropriate incident faster than ever before.”
