Call handling
Police Scotland has introduced a new way of assessing calls to its 101 and 999 service that enables specially trained police officers and staff to make an enhanced assessment of threat, harm, risk and vulnerability.
Our new approach offers a wider range of options to provide assistance based on your needs and circumstances. This could include immediate attendance at the incident or within a specified timeframe, an appointment with a police officer or assistance directly over the phone.
Making an effective assessment of vulnerability when a person calls us is a key element of the changes we are making – ensuring we put the safety of those most in need at the heart of our decision making.
For example...
An elderly person calls to report that their garden shed has been broken into. Under the new assessment model we might send officers but someone in a less vulnerable situation may actually request that we set up an appointment at their convenience or that an officer calls them back.
Making a more robust assessment of threat, harm, risk and vulnerability will ensure that the correct, most effective police response is provided to every caller.
What won’t change?
You will still call 101 and 999 as you do now, there is no change to the way you can contact us. Rather than having a 'one size fits all’ approach to certain types of calls, under the new approach, service advisers will take into account the needs and circumstances of everyone who contacts us to provide an appropriate and proportionate policing response.
Assessing calls in this way will also increase our ability to dispatch police officers to urgent incidents, which means we can get to the people who need us most, when they need us most.
