Review launched as time to answer calls by Staffordshire Police doubles in year
An urgent action plan has been drawn up after it emerged the length of time taken to respond to non-emergency calls by Staffordshire Police had almost doubled in the last year.
Bosses said the issue with 101 and 999 call handling was caused by staffing problems and workers moving into a £1 million new control room.
Today Staffordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis said he was intervening to try and resolve the problem.
He said: "There will always be differences in day-to-day and week-to-week performance depending on rising and falling demand.
"But the sustained worsening performance over several months was a matter of real concern for me, the public and the police."
He said new measures are being put in place to plug staff shortages including drafting in police officers on restricted duties, staff working overtime and training other police staff to deal with 101 non-emergency calls.
A review of call centre and customer service activities will also be carried out.
The new control room has been opened at the force's Stafford headquarters where staff deal with the calls - rather than being based across two sites at the Stafford HQ and in Hanley.
Response times rose from 60 seconds in February 2014 to 113 seconds in July 2014.
