EXCLUSIVE | WATCH: MFR News investigates police control room closures

Later this summer we'll find out if the police control room in Inverness will be shut - with calls being answered in the central belt, instead of locally.

But this week we're finding out how the closure was handled in Aberdeen back in March.

Police insiders have exclusively spoken to MFR News - describing the move as "rushed", "underfunded" and "stressful."

In a series of special reports this this week, we'll reveal the findings of our investigation.

We’re looking into how it now works when Aberdonians dial 999 to call Police Scotland in an emergency, and finding out how the workforce is coping with the recent changes.

Since Aberdeen's local police control room was closed in March, and replaced by facilities in the central belt, we’ve seen a number of incidents where officers have been dispatched to the wrong location.

What happened after Aberdeen's local police control room shut & moved to the central belt?

MFR News has spoken exclusively with Police Scotland insiders, who have given us their views on the Scottish Government's centralisation programme.

One whistle-blower said: "I can understand why it's been done, because at present moment in time the police - across all departments - are suffering from an unprecedented level of cutbacks.

"Our department - it's an important department - because we're there to take the initial call, make sure every detail is correct to pass on to officers that go, and we probably saved officers a lot of work in terms of going to jobs and when they were at jobs.

"That level of service has been scaled back now because of the national model.

"The best solution would have been to keep all the control rooms, and to keep all the service centres as they were.

"Had the police had the money, I'd like to think they would have done that, but with the unprecedented level of cutbacks that they were facing it's understandable that the Chief Constable and senior management took the decisions - perhaps too quickly some might suggest, and I would agree with that.

"The simple harsh reality is that the money isn't there."

WHAT YOU THINK...

Notably, back in April police were called to a potential break in at the Tesco on Aberdeen’s Great Western Road, but officers were mistakenly sent to a store in Glasgow on a road with the same name.

Three hours later, they finally arrived at the North East supermarket. At the time, MFR News asked police what had happened, and they told us: "The call was graded appropriately based on the initial information provided and allocated to officers.

"After receiving further information about the location of the store, officers in Aberdeen were in attendance by 8.50am."

Now, we’ve been finding out what caused the mix-up.

"The simple harsh reality is that the money isn't there" POLICE SCOTLAND INSIDER

Assistant Chief Constable John Hawkins told us what went wrong: "In truth, Great Western Road was down to individual human error.

"We've examined it, and it gives us an opportunity to explain to staff the importance of being really clear about locations.

"Some of the other media attention we've seen is around call-handlers maybe giving the impression they're asking a lot of questions to clarify a location. Of course, that's good practice as far as we're concerned. We want our staff to get all the information they possibly can to reduce any uncertainty at all about a location. So we encourage our staff to ask those questions - sometimes that can be perceived as a lack of local knowledge.”

Now when Aberdonians call the police for help, their 999-call will go through to the first available adviser, who could be based at any of the force's three call centres in the country.

If the call-handlers decide you need officers to attend, they will transfer the call to a facility in Dundee, from where local officers are dispatched.

This might trouble you, and you might be worried that staff in Glasgow won’t understand your accent, or know where you are. But we’re hearing the minute you dial through, your location is flagged up, and then call-handlers have a number of systems to find your exact location.

ACC Hawkins explains: "We have some ICT systems that have proved really helpful. We've got a system called The Gazetteer which is an electronic location-based system, and we upload that from local authorities across the country, and it gives us comprehensive details of house names, house numbers, streets, and roads.

"Including the known as, or colloquial, and alias names, and it's a system that’s updated constantly. It also includes landmarks - schools, hospitals, mountain ranges.

"Our service advisers have that information at their fingertips, and they also have access to mapping systems.

"So that, alongside the planning and the training and the exercising that they do, gives them that ability to respond to local place names, and gives the local knowledge that is needed.

HAVE YOUR SAY:

• LosingControl
• #LosingControl