Current Demand On Communications Centres

Call Volume

30. Currently, New Zealand Police Communications Centres receive around 1.6 million calls each year, of which in 2004, 466,000 came through the national emergency "111" number.[3] This represents 60% of the genuine "111" calls handled by Telecom New Zealand Ltd. (Telecom) with 29% of calls for Ambulance and 11% of calls for service from New Zealand Fire.? (Telecom rejects around 68% of all incoming "111" calls as false or bogus).

31. Of the "111" calls received, the CCSC reports approximately 12% are deemed to be Priority One (P1) events, requiring immediate police response (0 - 10 minutes) and approximately 77% are assessed as Priority Two (P2) events requiring timely response dispatch (0 - 30 minutes).[4]

32. These reported figures are contrary to the perception of Panel members, (based on submissions received, discussions with staff and observation of call taking,) that there is a slightly lower percentage of actual P1 events and a much lower percentage of P2 events as reported. It is also possible that too many incidents are being entered as P1 or P2 due to the fear created by recent events.

33. These figures also indicate that only 11% of calls are considered non-emergency situations, not requiring urgent or timely response. This is clearly in conflict with the notion that the "111" line is regularly used for non-emergency situations. The priority criteria should be marketed throughout New Zealand Police and consistently adhered to (refer to Appendix Five).

34. The CCSC also receives all non-emergency calls through the *555 system, which was established to allow members of the public to contact police to report non-urgent traffic incidents, poor driving behaviour or hazards affecting traffic safety. The Centres receive around 360,000 *555 calls annually.

35. Other calls into the Communications Centres make up a further 850,000 annually and include the general queue, operational interactions between staff and diverted calls from Districts including those due to the practice of "night-switching"; and the Allied Emergency Service (AES) queue (30,000).

36. The whole area of assessing demands (volume, answering and strategy) needs to be addressed. Although the largest volume of calls is not "111" (the most time sensitive) New Zealand Police must determine how it wants to handle all phone traffic. Police needs to confirm the assessment of volume and develop a reasoned approach that effectively and efficiently serves the needs of all stakeholders.

37. The concept of a Single Non-Emergency Number (SNEN) is discussed throughout this report.

Call Answering

38. The CCSC has performance standards for call answering times, for "111" calls, 90% within 10 seconds of the call being presented and for all other calls, 80% answered within 30 seconds of presentation. Although in line with international best practice, these standards are not set in consultation with the public so there can be no comparison drawn with meeting public expectations. Consultation should be undertaken with as wide a range of stakeholders as possible before negotiating service standards with Government. Though it might not be possible to solicit a consensus from the community and those stakeholders, particularly in the trade-off between standards and cost, Police needs to communicate clearly what is achievable within the available resources and thus create realistically achievable standards.

39. The self-set standards are not currently being met, nor have they ever been met consistently for any sustained period of time. This leads Police to the position of failing to meet its own standards, regardless of public expectation.

40. With the current practice, relevant "111" calls received by Telecom are presented to the "local" centre covering either the upper North, lower North or South Island. If the call is not answered after 75 seconds, it is manually withdrawn by Telecom and presented at an alternative Centre, although has no priority over other calls being presented to that Centre. This practice of "bouncing" calls at the time of the review affected around 3,000 calls a month.[5]

41. Under the current conditions, the call answering time is calculated from the time the call is presented to the Centre at which it is answered and does not include the time a call has queued at another Centre. Of concern, is that this practice essentially invalidates the reported call answering time statistics and indicates that the actual performance is lower.

42. In the opinion of the Panel, the number of calls being ‘bounced’ between the Centres before being answered, and the time taken to answer these calls, is too high. Consideration needs to be given to the introduction of a Networked Automatic Call Distributor (NACD) to cease the occurrence of ‘bounced’ calls. Such a system is ideally suited to a centralised ‘virtual’ facility along with the implementation of other technology based tools discussed in this report.

43. Ideally, no calls should be bounced at all. It represents a self defeating, inefficient and risky activity. The installation of NACD requires qualification and discussion with the Police IT Service Centre and Telecom. However, improvements to call handling must precede such a move. Police advises acknowledgement that this is an issue that requires careful management and has commenced discussions with Telecom to identify options for the issue to be fixed.

44. The operation of NACD however requires national real-time data sharing for the purpose of dispatch, which the Panel understands is not possible due to the capacity of the current system. The feasibility of overcoming capacity restrictions should be explored with immediacy although the Panel is advised that Police is within two to three months of achieving a fix for this issue.

45. Any move towards a ‘virtual centre’ would of course carry significant associated costs as well as requiring the removal or mitigation of a variety of technical and business risks. This issue should remain as a long term consideration for Police.

Communications/Contact Strategy

46. One of the core functions of Police is to assist members of the public when they call for Police services.[6] The CCSC has a critical role to play in facilitating that response. There are a number of means by which calls are currently received and responded to by the Communications Centres.

47. The opportunity to divest the current volume of calls from the CCSC is discussed later in this report.

48. New Zealand Police operates a ‘whole of policing’ approach to crime and crash reduction and public safety.[7]This requires all Districts and Service Centres to work together to achieve the Police vision of "Safer Communities Together". One of the ways in which Police is currently achieving a reduction in reported crime[8] is through enhanced intelligence and problem solving techniques.

49. One of the unique identifiers of the policing environment, as opposed to a commercial contact centre operation, is the value of information analysed and evaluated as intelligence to better inform Police actions both tactically and strategically.

50. However, there is no evidence of a coordinated ‘intel’ strategy within the CCSC. As well as being an indicator for present or future demand, analysis of and intelligence gathered from incoming call data will potentially identify patterns and repeat calls for service.[9] These patterns may not otherwise be identified by Districts due to the nature of the call, but could be addressed by adopting problem solving techniques and a proactive approach. Equally, there is no indication from Districts that these data are being sought as an information source and for use by operational or intel units. This observation also applies to national intelligence units.

Alternative Contact Options

51. New Zealand Police offers a range of alternative options to receive calls for service or information. The public has the option to contact police at around 430 stations and ‘storefront’ facilities nationwide, either in person or by telephone; or by the internet via the Police web site. In addition, New Zealand Police uses news media, television and the internet to provide information to the public on a variety of issues.

52. Although this range of options exists, New Zealand Police has no over-arching communications or contact strategy, to determine ways in which information can be provided to or sought from the organisation. A starting point for developing such a strategy would be to carry out public consultation to determine contact preferences of the wider community. While this issue is not specific to the Communications Centres, as a principal point of contact, it is likely to impact on the CCSC in terms of the volume of calls received which in turn will depend on the outcome of public expectation and the range and efficiency of alternative services offered.

53. The Police website could be improved as a self-service source of information for the public by adding a ‘frequently asked questions’ section.

54. The New Zealand public will undoubtedly have differing expectations of what constitutes an emergency compared with how an emergency is defined by Police. With increasing attention on delivery of quality customer service by both private and public providers, it will be important to the future reputation of New Zealand Police to also maintain a customer focus. This aspect must be considered when developing a communications or contact strategy.

55. New Zealand Police participates in a weekly television programme entitled 'Police Ten 7', which calls for public assistance with recent crimes and identifying or locating offenders. Around four to six cases are included each week and a freephone 0800 number is provided for viewers to call.

56. The receipt of these calls however is deficient. Callers specify which case number they are calling in regard to using touch-tone technology and are then automatically diverted to the cell phone of the officer in charge of the case. Obviously the officer concerned can only take one call at a time so other calls are diverted to voicemail. Due to the nature of the information sought, many callers who wish anonymity may not want to disclose their name or contact number and so the information they have might not be passed on.

57. Currently, separate 0800 numbers are regularly established on an individual basis when police seek information from the public pertaining to a particular crime, most regularly for a homicide or other high profile incident.

58. Some international jurisdictions operate a ‘Crimestoppers’ programme which is a much more comprehensive arrangement. It is not recommended that New Zealand Police implement such a scheme at this time, but this sort of crime reporting and ‘tip off’ option must be considered in the overall communications strategy. This initiative, along with the concept of centralised telephone reporting, has been previously identified by Police in the Auckland Report.[10]

Future Demand

59. There is a variety of factors that will impact on the future of Police communications. These include trends in actual crime, public confidence/ apathy, technological advances and social and environmental change. In the future there will be:

• changes in volume;
• changes in type of demand;
• changes in expectations; and
• changes in technology (i.e. increasing use of mobile telephony)/call intake or contact options (i.e. e-reporting).

60. This is a great opportunity for New Zealand Police to start looking ahead at how to continue to move police communications into the future. Police is going to have to address the following questions:

• What do members of the public/Districts/stakeholders need the CCSC to do?
• What is a reasonable (acceptable to all parties) service to deliver within the ability and responsibility of CCSC?
• How will Police successfully communicate their decisions (Public education, managing relationships, MoUs/SLAs)?
• How will Police implement/achieve what it sets out to do?
• How will Police know it’s achieved/continues to achieve stated delivery?

61. The responses to these questions will have various implications across the whole of policing. The Police Strategic Plan to 2006 identifies a range of indicators to measure its effectiveness. All of these indicators are directly affected by actual and perceived performance of the CCSC. The future of police communications is also vital to developing Police capability and should continue to be a focus of overall Police strategic and business planning.

62. The National Manager CCSC should identify all key stakeholder groups. This will ensure that effective communication links are established and maintained. It is important that an ‘Outside-In’ approach is developed rather than assuming the service being delivered is effective and addresses the communication challenges of differing geographical areas, minority groups and those groups who may have special needs within the community.

63. Having had the opportunity to discuss some of the concerns of the rural community, it is clear that Police needs to establish and maintain closer links with those communities that will better inform and communicate the Police position. The Panel acknowledges that since this review commenced, the Commissioner has appointed an Executive member to the position of Rural Liaison Officer.

64. One option for changing the way New Zealand Police will operate in the future is the introduction of Single Non-Emergency Number (SNEN), such as the Police Assistance Line (PAL) model operated in New South Wales and other jurisdictions. Such a system allows for members of the public to seek or provide information via a single point of entry such as a freephone 0800 number or another easily remembered number i.e. NZP or *697 as an alternative to "111".

65. Police advises that the number 0800 311 311 has been reserved for the purpose of establishing a non-urgent reporting line at some point in the future.

66. Such a system can operate as a ‘one stop shop’ using interactive voice messaging to put the caller in contact with the appropriate service and potentially could also offer a Te Reo Maori contact option.

67. A self-service model, linked to an e-policing strategy should also be developed as a mid to long term initiative. This would provide New Zealand citizens and overseas jurisdictions with a choice of how to gain access to information and report crime or provide information on criminal activity affecting New Zealand.

68. The New Zealand Government in conjunction with the community and major stakeholders should consider a long term (10 - 15 year) move away from the emergency number "111" due to misuse of repeat dial numbers and worldwide trends toward a common emergency number.?

69. International governments, particularly in Europe, are moving toward an international emergency number. At present, most mobile/cellular telephones have a built-in ‘112’ emergency number, reflecting the moves in Europe. The expanding use of key pad mobile/cellular phones having a single number repeated such as "111" ‘000’ or ‘999’ greatly increases the chance of a misdial, tying up valuable time. This consideration needs to be achieved through constant monitoring of worldwide trends through organisations such as NENA (National Emergency Number Association) and ANZAPCO (Australia and New Zealand Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials).

Recommendations

70. Establish a citizen focus panel comprised of key public stakeholders. This should meet quarterly to link into and improve CCSC service.

71. Enhance the Police website as a self-service source of information in the short term by adding a ‘frequently asked questions’ section.

72. Consider the development of a self-service model, linked to an e-policing strategy as a mid to long term initiative.

73. Consideration needs to be given to the introduction of a Networked Automatic Call Distributor (NACD) to cease the occurrence of ‘bounced’ calls.

74. The feasibility of overcoming capacity restrictions to enable national real-time data sharing should be explored with immediacy.

75. The CCSC should establish its own intelligence capability and be considered? part of District and national intel data collection plans.

76. Communications should feature more strongly as part of overall Police strategic and business planning processes, including District planning.

77. Establish a rural liaison officer to provide a link with rural communities and organisations and feedback information into CCSC management.

78. As part of the Communications Strategy, consideration should be given to the future establishment of a Single Non-Emergency Number (SNEN).

Endnotes

[4] Source: New Zealand Police Event Priority Data 2003/04.

[5] Source: Telecom New Zealand Ltd. 2004 Call Data.

[6] New Zealand Police Strategic Plan to 2006.

[7] New Zealand Police Statement of Intent 2004/2005.

[8] New Zealand Police Annual Crime Statistics for Calendar Year 2004.

[9] Sherman, LW. Gartin, PR. and Buerger, ME. 1989, Hot Spots of Predatory Crime: Routine Activities and the Criminology of Place, Criminology 27 pp27-55 Washington, D.C.: U.S.

[10] New Zealand Police, 21 November 2002, Issues relating to Policing in the Auckland Area, Report to the Minister of Police.