Deputy Commissioner: Operations Mike Bush today announced the equivalent of 18 full-time equivalent additional staff would be hired to bolster the workforce ahead of the busy summer period.
The reasons given for the increase in the demand over summer include more daylight hours, more traffic on the road, more alcohol consumption and extreme weather events, along with a steadily increasing demand for Police assistance with social issues in their communities.
“We know the pressure starts to come on in August, September and October. Our analysis indicated that demand increases further over the summer period, and we want to meet demands.” Mr Bush said.
Adding to the increased demands on Communications Centre staff has been the introduction of the Crime Reporting Line, service by Communication Centres. The initiative, designed to help process crime reporting such as burglaries and thefts, has been an outstanding success, operating at a significantly higher rate than planned - freeing time up frontline staff to be where they are most needed, but resulting in more pressure on Communication Centres.
"The ultimate goal is to meet higher expected call demands using a range of approaches" said Mr Bush, including looking at better management of *555 calls to ensure that only the calls requiring Communications Centre attention are directed there, and a new workforce management tool introduced earlier this year.
"The workforce management tool has given us the opportunity to become more effective in how we roster to meet demand, and at the same time provide more flexibility for staff.
"It's a more effective way of managing our people; delivering a better match between real-time demand and available staff.
"It will also create a fairer working environment so people aren't working the high demand periods all the time. Ultimately, these changes result in a healthier workforce and better service to victims of crime."
Mr Bush said this renewed focus on service to victims was supported by feedback from the public, with recent external survey results from the quarter ending in September rating overall satisfaction with staff at 91% (up 7% from this time last year), and overall quality of service delivery up 5% to 89%.
The new staff will commence training on 4 November.
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Issued by:
Kevin Sinnott, Police Public Affairs, tel: 04 4707136; mobile: 027 7050341