Two thirds of 101 calls to West Mercia Police not answered in target time
The region's crime commissioner has demanded improvements after figures revealed police are falling well short of targets for answering non-emergency calls.
Data from West Mercia Police has shown that only 34 per cent of last month's non-emergency '101' calls were answered within the 30-second target – despite the force setting ambitions for a level of 80 per cent earlier this year.
West Mercia's Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion said he had met with the force's new chief constable, Pippa Mills, to discuss the issue and will receive quarterly updates on performance.
Mr Campion said "the current performance for answering 101 calls is not where it needs to be", adding: "More needs to be done."
He did, however, praise control room staff for "working as hard as possible to deliver the best possible service".
In May of this year the force outlined plans for 80 per cent of non-emergency calls to be answered within 30 seconds by the end of the year.
At that point the force was answering 57 per cent of calls within that time, but Mr Campion's office has revealed that performance slipped to 34 per cent for September
The figures have been affected by a system outage where the force was unable to take calls due to a power failure on Monday, September 6 – but there has also been a significant reduction in the number of calls being made – 21.5 per cent – against the same period last year.
The performance on 999 calls was considerably better, with 88 per cent of September's emergency 999 calls answered within 10 seconds.
However, the figure was still below the target of 90 per cent, but was again affected by power and ICT failures.
Mr Campion said despite control room staff "working tirelessly to deliver the best possible service", improvements are needed.
He said: "There are quite rightly clear expectations from the public in terms of being able to contact their police force. The current performance for answering 101 calls is not where it needs to be.
"The control room staff are working tirelessly to deliver the best possible service to our communities, each and every day. Although the public now have additional options for contacting the police, digitally or via social media, more needs to be done to ensure all contact is handled in an efficient and effective manner.
"I am confident the force shares my commitment and vision for improving the service to the public, and work is under way to meet the target. I will continue to play my part in ensuring that happens."
