Suffolk Constabulary shares improvements to its call handling performance

Suffolk Constabulary has seen improvements to its call handling performance thanks to recent investment into its Contact and Control Room (CCR).

Figures for 2024 to date (January to 21 February 2024) show that almost 91% of 999 calls were answered within the national performance target of 10 seconds.

Assistant Chief Constable Eamonn Bridger said: “Our data shows there has been a marked improvement in our call handling since July 2023 with significant increases in our response times in November and December 2023 when almost 93% of 999 calls were answered within target.

“We know how important it is to answer a call as quickly as possible and we remain on a great trajectory for the year ahead as we continue to work to improve our performance month on month.”

The number of 999 calls received by the CCR has increased by almost 30% over the past three years, from an average of 8,645 per month in 2019 to an average of 11,141 per month in 2023, and these numbers continue to grow.

To meet the demand of these increases and enhance its performance in responding to the public, the constabulary has been undertaking a long-term transformation within its control room.

This has been achieved largely by the investment from the council tax precept in the 2022/23 financial year, which has facilitated the recruitment of an additional 27 call takers and four police officers. These new call takers have been dual-trained to work in the dispatch teams that deploy officers to incidents.

Assistant Chief Constable Eamonn Bridger continued: “Our call takers play a crucial role in our policing; they deal with critical, frontline policing, and handle challenging situations. It is a stringent seven-stage recruitment process and our newest recruits are a major boost in making sure that we are performing an effective service that the public can rely on.

“In addition to our staff uplift, we have also made changes to our internal policies and processes to improve efficiencies to our call handling to both our emergency and non-emergency response and, this spring, we will be developing our digital team within the CCR to enhance online communication, thanks to the continued investment from the police and crime commissioner.”

As more and more people engage online, the constabulary have invested in the use of modern and innovative technology to improve communication with the public and provide them with alternative means to contact police.

This includes increasing social media engagement, promoting Live Chat as a means to communicate in real-time and, most recently, the introduction of the force Single Online Home website which has made online crime reporting easier.

The success of these channels, in addition to staff increases, is reflected in the reduced demand on the 101 service.

In 2023, the constabulary received 111,532 calls to the 101 number, a decrease in almost 5% to the previous year (and 11.6% less than the number of calls made to 101 in 2021).

When a caller dials 101, they are greeted with a list of options before being put through to an operator when they are prioritised and triaged based on threat, harm and risk. These options include a reminder of the online reporting facility, signposting to information on the website and Live Chat for non-urgent enquiries.

These online services have also had a positive impact to the 101 abandonment rates by offering the public an alternative means to report crime and obtain information. Comparing figures in December 2023 to those in July 2023, abandonment rates dropped by almost 22%.

ACC Bridger concluded: “It is encouraging to see from these figures that the public are using our online services as a lot of our non-emergency calls could be answered using the information available on our website, or via Live Chat.

“Our investment in technology will ensure that Suffolk Constabulary is more accessible for - and to - all members of the public, including those who are hard of hearing or speech impaired, and for those where English is not their first language as Live Chat auto-translates up to 100 different languages. We want to ensure we are consistently providing an effective response to those in need of policing services.

“We know that there are still improvements to make in our performance in how we respond to the public and we work closely with His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service (HMICFRS) which evaluates our progress.

“We remain committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our communities. The addition of our new call takers and continued improvements to our call quality and digital communications will allow us to build, and maintain, the public’s trust and confidence in our force.”

Suffolk Constabulary’s Police and Crime Commissioner Tim Passmore added: “Last year’s extra council tax enabled £1.4 million to be invested in the CCR transformation.  There are now more than 140 call handlers, a net increase of 27 operators supported by four additional police officers. Coupled with the implementation of new technology, Suffolk’s control room performance has improved enormously – which is great news for us all.

“This transformation programme is continuing with the delivery of our new digital communication desk and the rapid video response system to help victims of domestic abuse and violence.

“Better communication is raised with me on numerous occasions. These improvements will play a major role in keeping crime levels down benefitting all homes and businesses across our county.”