111 system report

**Lou Girardin** · 13th May 2005, 16:55

It seems you have a new playmate Spud

, now that we're the best of friends.

**Jeremy** · 13th May 2005, 16:59

Originally Posted by Biff

Across Europe (started in the UK) there's a national freephone number currently being introduced for non emergency calls. These calls are generally routed to your nearest open police station, or staff at the central control room not involved in taking routine emergency calls. It has been heralded an overwhelming success so far by all three primary emergency services.

I've sat in a fire control room and heard an operator take an emergency call (999 or 112 in the UK) from a lady complaining that a bird had been sitting on a power cable for "almost ten minutes". "That's what birds do madam", replied the operator. Apparently this kind of crap ties up so much control room operator’s time that 'real' emergencies are sometimes prevented from being responded to in a timely manner because idiots/mentally disturbed people hog the line.

Don't you get a nasty little fine for making useless calls to the emergency numbers?

**Ixion** · 13th May 2005, 17:49

Originally Posted by marty

neither fire nor ambos have a requirement for 2 way chat, checks etc - they are dispatched the job, then it is up to the unit to deal with it. i wish some knockers could go to comms and see how snowed under the police communicators really are - with fire comms (in the same office as police) sitting back literally with their feet on the desk. how many fire 111 calls do you think come through in a day compared to police 111?

Surely if there are more police 111 calls than fire 111 calls (which I imagine there are), that just means that there need to be more police 111 oeprators than fire 111 operators? Are they actually separate operators - would it not be more sensible to have one set of operators handling all calls ? Often one will need more than one service anyway - so if that happens does the fire operator send the fire engine then pass the call over to an ambulance operator to send an ambo ?

**Ixion** · 13th May 2005, 17:52

Originally Posted by Jeremy

Don't you get a nasty little fine for making useless calls to the emergency numbers?

Question is though, what do you do if you have a situation that is not really an *emergency* but is more urgent than "come into the station tomorrow and report it" ? eg there's a car abandoned in the middle of the road with traffic having to dodge round it. There's a drunk pestering old ladies in the shopping centre . etc

**marty** · 13th May 2005, 19:26

Originally Posted by Ixion

Surely if there are more police 111 calls than fire 111 calls (which I imagine there are), that just means that there need to be more police 111 oeprators than fire 111 operators? Are they actually separate operators - would it not be more sensible to have one set of operators handling all calls ? Often one will need more than one service anyway - so if that happens does the fire operator send the fire engine then pass the call over to an ambulance operator to send an ambo ?

therein lies the problem - (especially) since centralising comms, they just can't get enough experienced staff. the staff used to be split around the provinces - waikato, BOP, whangarei, and sworn staff were rostered thru the comms centre for each province, overseen by the station s/sgt. the good operators formed a core of trainers and stability, the young staff got a look at both sides of the desk when being rotated thru. with comms becoming a central business unit, staff are no longer roated thru, no born and bred aucklander really cares what is happening in kaitaia/taupo etc, no one wants to work night shift being abused and threatened over the phone for $14 an hour, can't go to the toilet without arranging someone to cover your terminal (not easy when there is no-one spare in the first place) can't eat/drink coffee at your desk, the list goes on.

there are smoe very good dispatchers at north comms, but they are only as good as the info that they receive. take this scenario - someone returns to the workforce - they were a shop assistant 15 years ago, and left to look after the kids for example - they have never had any dealings with the police. they see an inside sedentary job, pay is ok, good health plan. they become a call taker, taking police 111 calls. they have never seen anyone get beaten up by their drugged/drunk partner, never seen a car crash - they try their hardest, but the reality is that they just cannot process the correct/relevant information that is needed QUICKLY by the guys and girls on the street. they spend 5 minutes on the phone trying to extract information before even loading the job for the dispatcher to read, then the information may not be indepth enough.......

still - could be worse - in 1998-9 they were seriously looking at contracting the MELBOURNE POLICE call centre to take all calls for NZ - melbourne has a bigger population than all of NZ, so how hard could it be?

**spudchucka** · 13th May 2005, 20:16

Originally Posted by drummer

Mate... you promote yorself as a policeman... and now you abuse people... you accused me of doing just that but can't back it up... where are you at?

I didn't abuse anybody. Yorself will know when I abuse somebody, it will be quite obvious. This was not abuse. It was reminding Mr Shit about a private message troll he delivered to my inbox in which he claimed to work for the police and wanted me to tell him my name because he thought he might know me. When I replied and said that if he sent me his police ID number and his work extension then I would be happy to contact him for a chat...... funnily enough he never responded to that message.

So, back it up yourself drummer boy.

**spudchucka** · 13th May 2005, 20:20

Originally Posted by Lou Girardin

It seems you have a new playmate Spud

, now that we're the best of friends.

Can the hugging shit, I'm not into public displays of affection.

**idb** · 13th May 2005, 22:35

Originally Posted by marty

still - could be worse - in 1998-9 they were seriously looking at contracting the MELBOURNE POLICE call centre to take all calls for NZ - melbourne has a bigger population than all of NZ, so how hard could it be?

Yeah but India have all the experience in running overseas call centres......

**Pixie** · 14th May 2005, 02:49

Originally Posted by spudchucka

Go easy on him! He's done what any Kiwi boss would have done in the circumstances....... He's formed a committee....... that'l fix it!

Frontline police and the police association have been asking for a shake-up for years. For some reason they don't believe us though and in the end it takes a tradgedy and a report from an Aussie cop before they will listen to reason.

They haven't given any indications that they are going to listen.
You guys should stage a coup and run Robbingson and Hawkins out of town on a rail.

**Pixie** · 14th May 2005, 03:02

Originally Posted by MadDuck

Well last week I got caught in a situation that required a call to 111. I got through to comms in Christchurch and I have nothing bad to say about how they (was a she by the way) handled the call. The local police turned up on my doorstep the next day having had the call from Christchurch.

It wasnt an emergency but there was nowhere else for me to go and I felt kinda bad about tying up a line in case someone was really in trouble. but where do we go when we are in that situation? The local cop shop closes at like 5pm.

They may handle hundreds of calls a day and maybe one or two get fucked up. Lets put it in perspective. If it was an easy job we would all be doing it!

How difficult can taking details and directing support to the correct location,all with recorded back up be?
especially if someone's life is at stake.
I have taken calls in my job and directed other field service engineers to the right hospital lab.I never, repeat,never sent a Mr Whippy van to a cemetary by mistake.

**spudchucka** · 14th May 2005, 06:55

Originally Posted by Pixie

They haven't given any indications that they are going to listen.
You guys should stage a coup and run Robbingson and Hawkins out of town on a rail.

I don't think they have any choice but to listen.
http://www.police.govt.nz/resources/...entres-review/

Rob's initial response to the report.
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/1911.php

I hope they get the same bloke to do a review of front line police resources while they have him here.

**drummer** · 14th May 2005, 11:20

Originally Posted by spudchucka

I didn't abuse anybody. Yorself will know when I abuse somebody, it will be quite obvious. This was not abuse. It was reminding Mr Shit about a private message troll he delivered to my inbox in which he claimed to work for the police and wanted me to tell him my name because he thought he might know me. When I replied and said that if he sent me his police ID number and his work extension then I would be happy to contact him for a chat...... funnily enough he never responded to that message.

So, back it up yourself drummer boy.

Calling someone full of shit Spud ole boy is abuse...

**scumdog** · 14th May 2005, 11:46

Originally Posted by drummer

Calling someone full of shit Spud ole boy is abuse...

Maybe if you gave Spuddy your QID and ext.no. he could call you and you could tell him that in person???.....

**Biff** · 14th May 2005, 15:21

Originally Posted by Jeremy

Don't you get a nasty little fine for making useless calls to the emergency numbers?

If it's a malicious call/false alarm yes. If they trace you that is. The problem is that many of these false call outs are made from public phone boxes, or pay as you go mobiles. In the UK the older pay as you go mobiles aren't even registered to an individual, you could just walk into a shop and buy one without filling out any paper work. A great tool for organised crime gangs.