Contact Management

It is our responsibility to protect people's right to life, liberty and security and to maintain public safety by keeping the peace.

When handling public requests for service, we will deal with all contact promptly, in accordance with the National Contact Management Principles and Guidance and Our Commitment, by:

• giving priority to genuine emergency calls and processing them in line with best practice;
• processing the less urgent calls in a consistent and appropriate manner; and
• reducing the misuse of the 999 system by:
• educating and advising callers, using the 999 system for non-emergency incidents, that the new 101 non emergency line is the appropriate method of contact; and 
• enforcement, where applicable, where there is deliberate and repeated misuse.

We are committed to providing as many forms of contact as there are available so that we are accessible to all.  In addition to receiving calls we will provide:

• the means to report crime and lost / found property via email;
• an on-line “book a call” service where people can request a call back at a convenient time for them within specified time slots; and 
• a 999 SMS service where requests for service can be sent by text message.

We will provide clear guidance to communications staff on how to deal with all forms of contact, in line with the above standards.  This is linked directly to the Force targets on answering emergency calls and the police attendance at incidents.

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