Responding to 101 Calls

Published: 20 July 2022

In respect of 101 this is a force control room issue that I have no influence on, but I know that the force is currently recruiting communications officers to try and cope with the demand that is being placed upon them. During peak times the staff in the control room will understandably prioritise 999 calls but this can lead to delays on the 101 lines.

The weekly report is completed by a volunteer, who has done so for the last 20 years, with no input from the team or me. There is no agenda to its completion other than to inform, it cannot include every incident and is not intended to but I will forward your concerns on to him for consideration.

I completely agree with you with regards to the requirement for a Policing presence within these times, hence the previously mentioned tasking for patrol officers to be present in the area and the specific operations put in place by PC Hope for the SNT to be present at key times such as this. However, This time period is also the time period of key demand across the county. Even in our own area there are issues that present a higher risk of harm in both Studley and Alcester that also need to be treated as a priority with the staffing that we have. Indeed, just the other night we had arranged for support from other areas to provide a proactive presence in Earlswood. The team had been briefed issued fresh fixed penalty notice books. As they were about to go the team had to be, quite rightly, redeployed when a serious incident occurred in Alcester which involved several young children being quite badly assaulted at the hands of adults and subsequently needing to be taken into Police Protective custody, whilst several others needed to be arrested on top of the evidence gathering requirements for such an incident.

This highlights the need for the community to come together in order that a solution to design out the issues can be achieved.