Police control centres are so short-staffed that public safety is being seriously threatened, according to a study by UNISON. It could be only a matter of time before the chronic understaffing and high pressure environment combine to produce dire consequences for the public, says the
union.
It has called on the police service to deal with understaffing before an avoidable crisis or tragedy takes place. And the union has produced a 10-point plan*** to improve conditions that will be discussed by police control room workers today (12th) at a national seminar in London.
Academics from the Universities of Strathclyde and Stirling, carried out this first independent study** of conditions in police control rooms in the UK. The researchers found that 69% of control room staff thought that inadequate staffing was leading to increasing pressure on the job. The volume of calls going into police control rooms has rocketed since mobiles took off and there are now simply not enough staff to do the job.
Short staffing is compounded by ACPO targets on call waiting times that put more pressure on staff trying to give a quality service to worried and stressed callers. Home Office crime recording is another bureaucratic burden on hard-pressed staff.
Ben Priestley, National Officer for Police Staff, said: