A woman who called the police to report a dangerous driver near Aberdeen was left incensed by a “clueless” call handler based in Govan.
The furious driver said the remote operator first appeared unaware of the location of the A90 and then suggested she travel to a town an hour away to report it rather than her local police station.
It is the latest in a series of such reported incidents in the four months since Aberdeen’s dedicated call centre was closed and replaced by switchboards in Motherwell, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
On one occasion, officers called out to an incident at a Granite City branch of Tesco were sent instead to one at a similar address 150 miles away in Glasgow.
Police Scotland Chief Constable Phil Gormley said yesterday that he was “as confident that you can be” that staff were being properly trained and the changes would result in a better service.
Speaking after talks in Inverness about the imminent closure of the Highland capital’s own control centre, he said it was an issue the force took “incredibly seriously”.
But north-east MSP Liam Kerr said his pensioner constituent’s experience highlighted the need for an urgent review of the new system.
The 69-year-old driver from Stonehaven contacted the MSP after her windscreen was hit by a drinks can thrown by boy racers from their speeding car.
“I got a big fright because that stretch of road is bad enough without all the extra traffic from roadworks and there have been a lot of fatalities,” she said of the incident between Stonehaven and Newtonhill.
Having jotted down the registration number when she caught up with them at roadworks, the motorist, who does not wish to be named, could not get the 101 call handler to understand where the incident happened.
She said: “It was an absolute farce. The woman I spoke to didn’t know what the AWPR was, she didn’t even know it was a dual carriageway.
“But when she told me to got to Inverurie to give a statement I lost the will to live. She didn’t have a clue how far away it was.
“My husband speaks Doric so she wouldn’t have been able to even understand him. I will never dial 101 again.”
Her call was made at 5pm and there is a police station in Stonehaven with opening hours advertised as 7am-midnight, seven days a week. on the Police Scotland website.
Chief Superintendent Roddy Newbigging, C3 Division, said she “was offered diary appointments in Inverurie and Stonehaven which the caller declined.
“It was arranged for officers to attend the caller’s home the following day and her complaint was resolved.”
The driver disputed their account however.
“I was told to go to Inverurie as that is apparently my area office. I explained to her that was like going from Govan to Ayrshire and I refused. Stonehaven was never mentioned,” she said.
“A man from Dundee called at 10.30pm and said he would come round but I was in my nightgown.
“I had an appointment in the morning so we arranged for an officer to come round at 1pm and these officers, who were from Laurencekirk, turned up at 4pm.
“I’m from Ayrshire and if I see Nicola Sturgeon’s parents I will be asking them where our police officers are.”
Mr Kerr, the Scottish Conservative justice spokesman, has written to Justice Secretary Michael Matheson to highlight his constituent’s concerns.
He said: “The people of the north-east will be very concerned by this incident and how it was handled.
“We must be very wary of anything or any process that reduces, or could reduce, the ability of our emergency services to respond to incidents efficiently, promptly and safely.
“The Scottish Government must review whether its centralising agenda is working and ensure they are backing our emergency services properly”.
Asked about the dangers posed by the loss of local knowledge, Mr Gormley said: “It’s something we take incredibly seriously. This is the final stages of a two year programme in terms of moving control rooms and we put a lot of effort into making sure staff are trained and familiar, we do floor-walking through the changes.
“So actually I’m as confident that you can be that we’ve got robust processes in place, that staff are being properly trained and actually this will enhance what we can deliver to the public.”
