Thames Valley Police is considering dramatic new ways to improve the service it offers to the thousands of people who telephone the force each day, writes Andrew Ffrench.
Proposals to create two new hi-tech 999 control rooms - at Abingdon and Milton Keynes stations - and two custom-built customer service centres will be discussed by the police authority later this month. At the moment, there are seven control rooms operating in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and in 1999 operators dealt with around five million enquiries from the public - a call every six-and-a-half seconds.
If the plans are agreed, the new call-handling system would go live in the middle of 2002, to meet the deadlines for the introduction of a new police national radio system.
Assistant Chief Constable Julie Spence said the force had to revolutionise the way it handled telephone calls to keep pace with ever-increasing demands.
She said: "Every year more and more people call us asking for help, not least because of the huge number of mobile phones now being used, and we need to ensure all of our callers receive a high quality service."
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