Police call handlers get Aberdeen and Glasgow mixed up

Off icers were sent to right road... in wrong city

POLICE were left red-faced after attending a call-out in the right street – but the wrong city.

Staff at an Aberdeen supermarket reported an attempted break-in last week after discovering the front door had been smashed in the early hours of the morning.

But a call-centre blunder meant officers were not dispatched to the Tesco Express store on the city’s Great Western Road.

Instead, a patrol car from Glasgow – 150 miles away – was sent to the Tesco Express store on that city’s Great Western Road.

Officers from Aberdeen finally arrived at the correct Great Western Road three-and-a-half hours after the incident was reported.

Last Monday’s gaffe came only a few days after the Aberdeen emergency call centre was closed as part of a cost-cutting move.

All 999 and 101 calls are now handled by staff in call centres in Edinburgh, Motherwell and Glasgow. Those involving crimes in the North are then assigned to the Dundee area control room.

Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie warned the mistake could

‘This reinforces all the concerns people had’

have had ‘major consequences’ had there been a threat of violence.

He said: ‘I shudder to think what could have been. Bungling of this kind does not inspire confidence. Police bosses will need to work even harder to make this right.

‘We warned about the closure of local call centres but our fears were ignored. We need to know what steps will be taken to make sure this does not happen again.”

North-East Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald said: ‘The fact that Tesco on Great Western Road means different places to different people is no great surprise, but what is very worrying is that the police call handling system has clearly not been developed to the point that it can tell the difference.

‘This reinforces all the concerns people have had, particularly in Aberdeen, about the loss of local knowledge.

‘Call handlers do their level best at all times but the greater the area they are trying to cover, the more risk there is of getting it wrong. The consequences in another case could be tragic.’

A police source confirmed officers sent to Great Western Road in Glasgow arrived at 7.34am on Monday, April 3. The location was changed to Aberdeen ten minutes later when police realised they were dealing with the wrong city.

Superintendent Matt Richards of Police Scotland’s contact command control division said: ‘A call was received at around 5.30am on Monday in relation to damage caused to a door on Great Western Road which had taken place overnight.

‘The call was graded appropriately based on the initial information provided and allocated to officers. After receiving further information about the location of the store, officers in Aberdeen were in attendance by 8.50am. Inquiries are ongoing.’

A Tesco spokesman said: ‘We are working with police to identify those responsible for an attempted break-in at a Tesco Express store in Aberdeen.’

Police Scotland was forced to apologise in 2015 after Lamara Bell lay gravely injured next to her dead boyfriend for three days after a call-handler failed to log a report of a wrecked car in a ditch off the M9.

Miss Bell, 25, later died in hospital.

An investigation following the incident identified staff shortages at the Bilston Glen control room in Midlothian.