Durham 999 answering times “dramatically improve”

By Hugh Ludford

Durham Constabulary has successfully reduced call wait times to the national target of 90% of emergency 999 calls being answered in ten seconds. 91.6% of 999 calls are now answered in ten seconds or less, with “further improvements expected”.

In May, Durham Constabulary received 8,233 emergency calls, 7,545 of which (91.6%) were answered within the ten second target. Additionally, non-emergency calls to 101 are now answered in an average of six seconds, according to data from the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

This marks a stark turnaround since these datasets were first released in 2022, when Durham Police had the third slowest response times in the UK. At the time, only 41% of their emergency calls were answered within the ten-second target.

These improvement in response times follow an investment of around £1.5 million into new staff and technology. Within this investment are 24 newly trained call handlers, and a new platform for connecting calls to the Constabulary’s control room.

Additionally, Durham Constabulary have adopted the Single Online Home platform. This national website, use by most regional police forces already, lets the public report crimes and submit applications without straining the phone lines.

Chief Superintendent Chris Barker welcomed the achievement, saying that “average waiting times on 101 used to be measured in minutes – they are now measured in seconds”.

Durham’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Joy Allen, said the force is “now seeing the benefits of [this] investment, which has dramatically improved the quality of service people receive when they ring in”

Image: Beatrice Law