Operational Services
Operational Communications
The Operational Communications Department is the first point of contact for callers who telephone Staffordshire Police for assistance or to access services. It aims to ensure that callers are met with a prompt and efficient service and is made up of:
- a central switchboard
- two control rooms
The control rooms are based at Hanley and at Police HQ in Stafford covering the whole of Staffordshire.
Staffordshire Police provides an emergency response 24-7, every day of the year. All calls made to our 101 number – excluding 999s and direct dial numbers – are initially answered by a central switchboard at HQ. Call takers ascertain the nature of the call before directing it to the appropriate operator for it to be dealt with effectively.
In the case of 999 calls for serious or on-going incidents, the call will be directed to one of the two control rooms.
There is always a police inspector on duty in one of the control rooms who is the force duty officer and has overall operational responsibility.
The work of the control room operators includes receiving calls and dispatching police resources to reported incidents, monitoring radio communications and requests from officers, recording details of incidents on the STORM system, monitoring Police National Computer (PNC) broadcast messages and road traffic information.
Improvements and access flexibility are continually developed, as is the opportunity for the system to integrate with other computer packages, such as resourcing (which shows when officers are available for duty), mapping and visual downloads from the force helicopter and closed circuit television cameras around the county.
Staffing requirements for our round the clock call handling services are the responsibility of the resource unit. Its duties include managing staff abstraction, staffing special events/operations and arranging training courses in conjunction with human resources.
Response Times
Our target times to answer 999 calls is 90 per cent within 10 seconds.
Once an incident is received it will be given a grade of response and the target times to respond to these are:
- Immediate – 15 minutes in an urban area , 20 minutes in a rural area
- Priority – 60 minutes
- Standard – 48 hours or by pre-arranged appointment