Dorset Police has slowest response times to 999 calls in England
Data reveals only 75% of emergency calls were answered within 10 seconds
Dorset Police were the slowest force at answering 999 calls in the months of October and November 2023.
A new study by Radaris reveals out of 45 forces Dorset Police took the longest to answer emergency phone calls for both months.
Police forces across England are expected to answer 90% of 999 calls within 10 seconds, Dorset Police answered 75% in that time.
They have blamed “reduced staffing levels” and a lack of government funding for the “disappointing” results.
Chief Superintendent Gavin Dudfield, Commander for Contact Management and Prevention said:
“During the months of October and November, Dorset Police had reduced staffing levels due to training and staff sickness, which resulted in the force taking a number of seconds longer, on average to answer calls.”
The national data suggests Dorset Police answered 999 calls in October, on average within 16.15 seconds and 10.8 seconds in November.
But Dorset Police dispute these findings:
“Internal data, which records the time that the emergency call is made available to Dorset Police indicates that the average call answer time was 11.6 seconds and 9.22 seconds for each month respectively.”
Overall, the force has reduced the time taken to answer emergency calls compared to the year prior.
The study shows 999 calls were answered on average, in 12.62 seconds between January 1st and November 30th, 2023.
During this same date range from the previous year Dorset Police answered emergency calls, on average after 17.87 seconds.
But CSI Dudfield acknowledged that the force failed to meet the national target and vowed to take action to improve on the results.
He said:
“We have invested in enhanced training to improve our capability to answer more 999 calls and we have also reviewed our resourcing at peak times to ensure as many people as possible are available to take calls from the public.
“Furthermore, we continue to develop our improvement plans as we invest in technology to allow call takers to answer more calls within the national 10 second target.”