Greater Manchester Police bosses have plucked 77 cops from all across the force to bolster its 999 call handling department. They have been seconded to the 'Force Contact Centre' to help during the busy summer period.
Among them is PC Elizabeth Kelly, who recalled the dark days in 2020 when GMP was plunged into special measures. Then a civilian call handler, she recalled: "Demand was so high we didn't really get a break between calls."
Since Chief Constable Stephen Watson was installed in June last year, the force has halved the time it takes to answer the most serious 999 calls.
Last month it took an average 29 seconds to answer such calls compared to 66 seconds in June 2021. The improvement follows a £1m investment in call-handling, including 40 new call handlers.
The force was placed in special measures in December 2020 after a damning inspectorate report revealed serious failings, including the failure to record an estimated 80,000 crimes in twelve months. The scandal cost the then chief constable, Ian Hopkins, his job.
Now his successor has confirmed 77 police officers have been seconded into the 'Force Contact Centre' to maintain call-handling performance. Chief Constable Watson hopes the policing inspectorate will lift the force out of special measures thanks to recent improvements, including in call-handling.
The 77 officers have been brought in while the next wave of civilian call-handlers undergo three months of training.
PC Elizabeth Kelly, one of the officers drafted in, had worked as a civilian call handler for two-and-a-half years before becoming a police officer last year.
She recalled pressures she experienced in call-handling in the dark days when GMP was first plunged into special measures in 2020. PC Kelly said there weren't enough staff to cope: "Demand was so high we didn't really get a break between calls. You would finish a call and even if it was fairly horrific your supervision would try to give you that time but if there's another call and it's someone's life you have to take the call. At the time there were just not enough people in there."
She said: "I really liked the role before although coming back in feels a bit odd. It's a different type of pressure than being a response officer."
The officer admitted handling suicide calls was 'the hardest', especially when callers asked her to pass on last words to loved ones. But the job had its lighter moments, she said,
She recalled one environmentally concerned 999 caller demanded a response when she noticed someone putting plastics into the wrong bin. "You just can't fathom why you would feel the police would be required for that," she said. "You have to say that to them but a bit gentler than that," added PC Kelly.
Another 999 caller wanted police, fire and ambulance to come to her home as her partner was trapped in a 'sex swing'. "I asked if there was anyone else she could call and she said there was only her dad and she didn't really want to call him," said PC Kelly.
She said the work of a call handler 'opened my eyes to what policing actually is'.
Chief Constable Watson told the M.E.N: "We we have recruited very heavily into the Force Contact Centre... We're better using technology to manage demand and the team in there are working their socks off which is why many of the improvements have been made.
"What we confront at the moment is a short term difficulty in that the next big slug of people come on stream in September. Between now and September, we have the summer and the summer is a traditionally a very busy period. What we don't want to do is lose all of the gains we've made over the summer period whilst we're waiting for the new influx of staff.
"So what we've done on a temporary basis, over the summer and literally just over the summer, we've brought in some people who will assist us to maintain our performance despite the increased volumes. They will be released back to into the core role back in September when the new staff arrive and then we'll get to winning ways and we then have a sustainable model that will be able to cater for the ebbs and flows going forward."
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