40 min wait for cops to answer the phone

NEW CALL SYSTEM LEADS TO DELAYS

- BY NORMAN SILVERTER

POLICE chiefs were forced to set up a “critical incident" response after a new phone system saw the public waiting up to 40 minutes for calls to connect.

In the first days of a call handling system launch on November 25, there were major delays answering crime calls.

Even 999 calls - normally answered in under 10 seconds —were taking up to 50 seconds to get a response.

And 101 non-emergency calls, normally answered in about four minutes, were taking up to 40 minutes to pick up.

Call handling centres in Glasgow, Motherwell, Bilston Glen near Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness were affected.

Staff complained to their trade union Unison about the new system, saying they did not get adequate training.

It was introduced by Police Scotland with the aim of unifying and modernising the call handling systems inherited from the eight former regional forces in 2013.