DEVON and Cornwall’s acting chief constable says he won’t be satisfied until the abandonment rate of calls to the police contact centre drops below five per cent.

Eighteen months ago, seven out of 10 callers to the 101 service were hanging up because of long waits.

The average waiting time has reduced from 40 minutes to under five and the call abandonment rate dropped to 15 per cent.

Jim Colwell told a recent scrutiny panel that call handling, considered poor and inadequate since 2018, has been “transformed” but he is not complacent.

“We are on the right trajectory”, he said.

“There has been an undeniable change in performance but am I satisfied that our abandonment rate is down to 15 per cent?

“No, it’s got to be below 10. I want it below five.”

Devon and Cornwall’s Police and Crime Panel, which oversees Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez, heard how technology had improved call handling, but there has also been a culture change in the centres in Exeter and Plymouth.

Mr Colwell said significant investment had been made in a new phone system which had taken “far too long” and hard work by a lot of people over many years.

A call-back facility, enhanced training and different shift patterns had all helped the service improve.

Last week the force was formally discharged from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) concerns about emergency and non-emergency calls and the inadequate rating lifted.

The panel heard that 93 per cent of 999 calls have been answered within 10 seconds for the last 12 months and “most importantly” across the summer period when call levels increase.

The force was rated sixteenth nationally, but was in the top five of the 13 forces that receive more than 25,000 calls a month.

The chief said previously he had heard horror stories of people waiting on the 101 service for three or four hours. And people trying to contact the force by email were waiting up to 18 days for a reply, and at one point 3,000 emails were in the queue.

He said that staff working at 13 re-opened enquiry desks answered emails when they had no visitors and said “as of today we have no emails in the queue and our response to emails is within nine hours.”

Four more police enquiry desks will open in Ivybridge, Liskeard, Exeter and Tavistock this year.

Reopening police stations to the public was instigated by Alison Hernandez to improve connectivity between the police and the public, following years in which they had been closed to save money.

At the moment 300 people a day use the centres across the force area.

Nearly 2,000 people make contact with the Devon and Cornwall Police a day; 850 are 999 calls, 580 are to the non-emergency 101 number and 200 are emails.

Panel member Cllr John Loudoun (Ind, Sidmouth Rural, East Devon District Council) told Mr Colwell: “I am watching your demeanour, I am seeing a man who looks as if a bit of a weight has been taken off his shoulders.

“Credit to you, call handling is not easy in any organisation and when I heard the horror stories it was quite dispiriting.”

Alison Stephenson