Force denies problems in responding to 999 calls

The Northern Constabulary’s top officer has rejected a claim that the force is “in denial” about alleged problems with answering 999 calls.

Wick councillor Bill Fernie told a Northern Joint Police Board meeting that a lack of police action following emergency calls was a “recurring theme”.

Chief Constable Ian Latimer dismissed Mr Fernie’s claim, but said he would order an internal review of the system and “bring back a report regarding the quality of the service we provide” to the next board meeting.

Defending the force, Mr Latimer said: “We receive 20,000 calls to our operations centre every month. We are not receiving hundreds of complaints.”

However, Inverness West councillor Pauline Munro told the board that her constituents had reported two separate incidents of the police failing to respond to emergency calls in the past seven weeks.

On one occasion, a 13-year-old boy was running through the streets with no shoes on pursued by a gang, while in a second incident Mrs Munro claimed that police failed to react to four calls from a woman whose car was pelted with eggs in the Hilton area of Inverness.

She said: “Behind every number and statistic there is a human story.”

Mr Fernie said: “You have excellent staff there. There is a problem with the telecommunications. It’s a recurring theme. I fear the board is in denial.”

Mr Latimer said: “For me, I am not interested solely in the hard figures. I am interested, as we should be, in the quality of responses that we actually give.”

Mr Latimer went on to say that he monitored the response to 999 calls on a “personal basis” every month.