Following recent media reports about Police Scotland answering calls for the Metropolitan Police and the Police Service of Northern Ireland Nelson Telfer, ACC Service and Protection has issued a statement explaining how the service works.
He said: “Some of you may have seen reports in the media over the past couple of days about Police Scotland answering calls from the Metropolitan Police Service and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
“We wanted to take this opportunity to explain what happens within our service centres (call handling centres) and how we assist the public when they are in need.
You can also see some of our tweets about this over on twitter @policescotland using #CallHandling.
“Every Police Force (and other Emergency Authority) has an arrangement in place where we can assist each other if emergency calls are not answered within a certain time. This is called the Public Emergency Call Service (PECS) Code of Practice and has been in place for a number of years now. This code of practice is purely for 999 calls and not for non-emergency 101 calls.
“Before we became a single force in 2013, each individual force across Scotland had similar arrangements in place. Now that we are Police Scotland and one of the largest forces in the UK, we are requested on occasion to assist and support our colleagues and the public in other Force areas. ”
This happens rarely and only at times of exceptional demand – this could include at times of adverse weather or major incidents for example the recent terrorist attacks in Manchester and London. We are proud to support other forces at these times and should there be a requirement then they would support us.
“The 999 service across the UK is the responsibility of BT in conjunction with Emergency Authorities. This process is in place to support 999 call handling across the country. The process is initiated through a request from BT to assist another force and we will only do so if we have the capacity to do so.
“Here in Police Scotland, the Duty Officer, who has responsibility for C3 Division, including call handling, will decide if Police Scotland has capacity to assist in supporting the request for a short period of time.
“If the Police Scotland Service Centre is busy and dealing with calls from the public in Scotland then this request may be declined. We have declined this request in the past as our priority will always be answering calls from the public across Scotland.
“If we can help we will help. We will always assist the public when they are in need and provide assistance with their emergency calls. Where we do take 999 calls from other areas, we do not allocate officers to go to these calls. We take the initial call, provide assistance at first point of contact and then make that Force aware of the details. Responsibility for dealing with the call at this point lies with the force for that area.
“Police Scotland Contact Command and Control Division (C3) has undergone a significant level of change and improvement in the past 3 years. We have more call handling staff than ever before and every one of them do a fantastic job, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week helping the public. They speak to the public who are at crisis point, who are victims of and have witnessed crimes and need assistance, guidance and support.’
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
