‘101 hotline not good enough’ – police chief
GREATER Manchester’s police chief has branded failures in the region’s 101 hotline ‘simply not good enough’, after a report revealed callers waiting on the phone for more than three hours at a time.
Baroness Beverley Hughes, the deputy mayor appointed by Andy Burnham to oversee policing, said she had already spoken to senior officers about the problem and was hopeful of improvements ‘very soon’.
Our sister paper the MEN reported how nearly one in four callers abandoned their call in June as the force struggles with staffing issues. The longest wait for a call to be picked up after transfer from the switchboard was three and three quarter hours.
Councillors have warned ‘vital’ information on anti-social behaviour and even hate crime is being lost as people give up calling the nonemergency number altogether.
Baroness Hughes stressed she was aware of the problem.
“I have already met with officers from Greater Manchester Police and expressed my concern about the performance of the 101 hotline,” she said. “We all know it is simply not good enough.
“It was a manifesto pledge from the mayor to look at this following the concerns raised by residents and, on his behalf, this is exactly what we will do. I am hopeful that an action plan can be implemented swiftly and we will start to see improvements for local people very soon.”
Mr Burnham promised in his campaign not only to look into issues with 101, but to concentrate on improving neighbourhood policing – which often deals with the kind of low-level crime reported through the 101 line - in particular.
However GMP has said it is struggling to fill staff vacancies in its call centre, or to retain workers. Bosses are now looking at new ways of engaging the public, including through an online ‘chat’ service.
People recounted tales of long waits for their 101 calls to be picked up.
Some also pointed to callers wasting police time with trivial issues, while many said the problems have been caused by government police cuts - and that over-stretched call handlers are doing the best they can.
But others warned people may now go back to calling the emergency number instead.