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Irish Daily Mirror
a day ago
- General
- Irish Daily Mirror
Average time it takes gardai to answer emergency calls is now under 20 seconds
Special Garda response centres are now taking under 20 seconds to answer calls from desperate members of the public, it has emerged. Paul Cleary, the Garda Assistant Commissioner in charge of policing Dublin, says it now takes officers in four special regional control centres around the country an average of just 17 seconds to answer calls from members of the public. And he revealed that since the creation of the four centres and the introduction of a new dispatch system called GardaSAFE, response times to the more than one million calls the force receive a year have improved by 20 per cent. Commissioner Cleary said: 'Last year, our regional control centres received 1.2 million calls from the public, and 38 per cent of these calls were transferred from local Garda stations as part of our GardaSAFE call management system, which ensures that An Garda Siochana handles emergency and urgent calls consistently, allowing our frontline members to respond faster, with greater accuracy and with better support.' GardaSAFE was introduced to the force in 2023 – to improve how officers respond to 999 and non-emergency calls from members of the public. All calls that require the dispatch of gardai, whether emergency or not, are handled by the new control centres, which operate 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. The Dublin centre is based close to the city's Heuston station - and handles around 40,000 calls a month. That includes calls to Garda stations that are transferred to the centres if officers decide they require the presence of members of the force. Commissioner Cleary said the system has seen a major improvement in response times. He said: 'Since the launch of GardaSAFE, our call answer times have improved across our regional control centres by up to 20 per cent and the average time taken to answer calls in the Regional Control Centre is now 17 seconds. 'The time spent on these call averages is just over two minutes. "We have specially trained GardaSAFE call takers and dispatchers who can quickly assess the situation and provide the right response.' The senior officer urged people to call 999 or 112 in an emergency and added: 'This is the quickest route to getting the emergency policing service you need.' But he also said most calls to local stations were not asking for officers to be sent to an incident - and Garda bosses still want people to continue to pick up the phone to them. He said: 'I also want to reassure the public that our local Garda stations are also accessible, including by phone, and we want the public to continue to contact our local Garda station. 'This contact plays a vital role in how we serve our communities. 'Around 60 per cent of all calls to local Garda stations are not actually calls for service, requiring Garda attendance at an incident. 'They are people reaching out for information, advice, highlighting local concerns, and seeking reassurance and connection. "And it's very important that we've retained this contact. 'I would encourage people to continue to engage with your local Garda station. 'If your call does require Garda attendance at an incident, it'll be forwarded immediately to the regional control centre for triage and dispatch.'
The Journal
2 days ago
- The Journal
Gardaí have launched review into new 999 call-taking system just a year after its launch
GARDAÍ HAVE CONFIRMED that a new 999 call taking system is being reviewed to find where it is going wrong. Deputy Commissioner Shawna Coxon told a Dáil committee this week that a formal process to examine why 999 calls are going unanswered is underway. It comes after the Dr Elaine Byrne chair of the Policing and Community Safety Authority said that gardaí wasting time on frivolous call outs was because of an 'over-correction' in the wake of the cancelled 999 calls scandal. As revealed by The Journal previously , gardaí are facing a backlog of hundreds of calls on a daily basis across the country because there is now no triaging of calls. First reported in 2023, multiple sources said this week that the situation is unchanged. The Policing Authority carried out a major enquiry into the 999 call cancelling scandal . This identified failings in how domestic violence calls were responded. An Garda Síochána introduced a new Computer Aided Dispatch system known as 'GardaSAFE'. Along with that, members of the public calling the gardaí are directed through to 999 call lines – which means that all calls, no matter how minor, go through the emergency system. The practice came in for strong criticism from Dublin TD Tom Brabazon at a hearing of the Justice Committee. The reality of the overcorrection was laid bare in the hearing this week. Speaking at a meeting with Commissioner Drew Harris and other senior gardaí Brabazon said that the public's experience of the system 'was not a positive one'. 'People are very reluctant to ring 999, they feel that this is counter-intuitive. 999 has always been an emergency number, not necessarily for something that's potentially a quality of life issue like anti-social behavior, etc. Advertisement 'So the experience has been that people using 999 are not getting the responses that they require,' he said. Brabazon said he had a constituent who contacted him because she received no garda contact about a missing child call she made. Another constituent complained that there was no response to a criminal damage incident. 'The person rang 999 because they previously were advised by myself that was the course of action that they should take. There was no response. No gardaí showed up. 'He subsequently followed up with the local Garda station [but] the garda station had got no information on that particular incident. There was a complete gap, a complete breakdown.' In another incident Brabazon himself called gardaí last week when he witnessed an incident with a person wielding a knife which had caused significant distress to an elderly man. Brabazon said that no gardaí responded to the call after he gave the details on the 999 call line. Commissioner Harris said that the gardaí had received 'a lot of feedback not dissimilar' to what the TD had outlined following the rollout of the Gardasafe system and centralised control rooms. He confirmed there was a review underway 'to reassess this connection with the community'. 'Can I say it was done with the best of intentions in terms of having, in effect, a record, a recording of any exchanges with the public over the phone,' he said. Deputy Garda Commissioner Shauna Coxon that the review was underway to deal with incidents similar to the experience as Brabazon had described. Coxon said that the system was introduced because garda managers were having difficulties tracking responses to calls. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
