Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: hotel21 on 03 January 2013, 22:52:12
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There's a thing ongoing up here at the moment whereby an idea has been floated (by a local police federation rep no less) that 999 calls are to be charged at a premium (50p a pop?) rate rather than free as is at the mo.
In my opinion and experience we have shot our collective selves in the foot with the drive towards call centres and efficiency in that local folks no longer know the number for the local nick and can't be arsed with the 0845whatever (only 50 pee a minute.... ) one.
Plus, call centre peeps do not know local names for roads, junctions, people or whatever and valuable time is lost in trying to ascertain the truth if the matter.
As a result the 999 system gets overloaded with the assorted run out of bog paper/dog got a temperature/some shit on Facebook called me a knob/neighbours parked outside in my parking space shit or similar.
Bottom line - would you prefer free or charged 999 calls?
...... and discuss.. :)
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Hang on, I thought the police where appealing for more calls, on the basis that people think its a waste of time. Therefor jobs drop off, and so do staff to handle said jobs.
And they want to charge for 999 calls? If they where getting too many hoax calls then possibly makes sense, but that's not been mooted in the medlia.
Daft IMO.
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I thought we had a national non-emergency number already ... 101 ??? Costing 15p a call, no time limit
I've used it several, times and it seems to work well ... OK .. the centre for Wiltshire, is not on my doorstep .. but they have been helpful and, when required, the man in the right uniform has turned up for a chat .. :)
http://www.wiltshire.police.uk/index.php/contact-us/3246
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I believe the cost of a 999 call should be decided by the government, not a local police federation rep.
The police have a very serious PR situation on their hands nationwide right now (in the light of plebgate and similar). Methinks clowns like this federation rep need to button it for a while. ::) ::)
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.... in that local folks no longer know the number for the local nick and .....
I know the number for my 'local' nick (the number is a general Manchester number & the supposedly transfer it to your local nick) but in the past when I've needed to ring, no bugger answers it ............ it's been faster driving down there & going to the front desk!
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And since when did the police service (kent)employ the service of a customer service manager???? ffs when i dail 999 cos my neighbours house is being broken into i want a plod either walking/biking/driving or even flying i am not fussed...what i dont want is a customer (when did i become a customer???) service manager ringing me up saying 'oh we cant come for another hour'...they soon got their sorry arses up here when i said don't wory 5 of us will sort it and hand them over to you when you ordane to turn up....i had 2 cars and a rowdy wagon with 2 minutes
now what was the customer service bod saying about not being able to turn up???? ???
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so what would happen if you on payg phone run out of credit and can't ring police. are we supposed to stand watching old lady getting mugged?
or scratch around at a phone box for change
but I see where it's coming from if it creates a better service
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IMO plod lost it long ago. Cop shop just round the corner, I got so fed up with plod related vehicles pulling out in front if me, as if it was their right of way, I complained.
The guy was aggressive, and said he'd recommend the council change the right of way (AT A ROUND ABOUT ::) ) to suit police vehicles. Wtf?
I said if they had the courtesy to put blue lights on they would likely be given right of way for free. Otherwise they should follow the same damn rules as anyone else. ( harrumph! ;D )
To add, just one example of numerous similar, undermined or inbred arrogance, who knows. But they aren't there to serve the public anymore, but then, we knew that.
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Frankly, on second thoughts, I think the 999 service and, in fact all communications with our public services should be put out to the cheapest tender.
ME: Hello, Police?
OPERATOR: Ah, Good Morning, Sir. My name is "Brian" and I am here to help you. How are you today?
ME:There's an armed robbery in progress at the River Bank in the High Street.
OPERATOR:I see, Sir. At the end of this call, I would like to take part in a short customer survey. Is that something that you might want to take part in?
ME:I just want to report a robbery.
OPERATOR: OK, Sir. Not a problem, but if you chnage your mind, please let me know. Right, so how are you spelling Liver Bank?
ME: R_I_V_E_R
OPERATOR: R as in Rion?
ME: NO that would be an L. R as in Romeo.
OPERATOR: I have 3,563 High Streets. Can you tell me which one is this all happening on?
ME: In Westwick. There's only one High Street in Westwick.
OPERATOR: How are you spelling Westwick?
ME: Whisky, Echo, Sierra, Tango, Whisky, India, Charlie, Kilo.
OPERATOR: Is that two words or one?
ME: One!!
OPERATOR: Please excuse the delay. My terminal is very slow today.
ME: Oh, no, someone's pointing a sawn-off at me.
OPERATOR: A "Sornov"? Is that one of those cheap Russian iphones? Someone is taking your photo, yes?
ME: No, it's a f*cking gun.
OPERATOR: I must be telling you Sir, that we are not liking bad language. I will you be putting you through to my supervisor. If we get disconnected, please try again later.
Have a nice day.
Bang! ;)
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If you ever ring the police, some remote out of touch civvy sat in a call centre somewhere wants your entire life story before finding out what's happened. When there is a genuine emergency and dangerous circumstances they tell you they might be there in 3 hrs! Yes it happened.
The number of police dissappointments increase year on year, the latest one, a big one, being a few days ago.
Police aren't proactive anymore, they're only reactive, but it's too late then. So with that in mind I deal with things myself now as I haven't got a good word for them.
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>:( this is a stupid idea what happens when joe public gose into a phone box to report an emergancy finds that he has no change so the person or persons who need the police dont get them because the caller has no money then they die whos fault will that be will it be the bloke who couldnt call the police dose he end up in court being sued by the persons who died family for negligance because he didnt make the call
bloody stupid idea
i am sure the operators will prefer a few hoax calls as long as they get the call that saves sobodys life >:( >:( >:(
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Currently, if you phone 999 from a mobile phone it will use any available network to make the call. Even if your network has no service the call will get through via whatever is available. That clearly will cease if the mobile networks are expected to charge for the calls.
Recently, I was at the scene of an accident where one of the vehicles had come to rest in a position that seriously endangered oncoming vehicles. I tried to call the local Police just to park something with blue lights there as a warning. What a palava. Local station number redirects to some call centre with zero local knowledge. If "you'd like a crime number to give to your insurance company, press 1. If you'd like us to actually do something press 2..."
I doubt anything worthwhile came of it, as I had such difficulty even getting the location of the incident across. Had one person with local knowledge been available to take the call in the local nick, they could have got a car there within minutes, I'm sure. I was only half a mile from the Police station. ::)
I'm sure call centres are a nice cheap way of manning phone lines for some businesses. The business of potentially saving lives needs a bit more nouse and, as said, local knowledge at the end of the line, IMHO.
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And,ime if you try to call an emergency ambulamce its even worse.The operator establishes if the patient is breathing and conscious.If they are then an emergency call is refused and the ambulance takes three hours to arrive.Its a disgrace.
On the original point.The answer is easy.Outlaw and disband the Police Federation.Its an increasingly militant ,left wing trade Union (in all but name) which is determined to win the "right" for its members to go on strike,amongst other things.
Then the police could maybe start returning to actually serving the public who employ them.
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Yes seem to have experienced most of the above at some time here in cambridgeshire,i find sarcasm works well along the lines of
"the convayence the accused is using isnt taxed can you send the helicopter" or if you really want a pdq response "i am just cleaning my shotgun" and that gets them going a bit other wise its wait a week for a wooden top to call round if they are in the area,and dont forget the risk assessment they do now for most calls ;D
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The trouble is, what do you call.
We had an incident recently where some 'youths' had construted a 1.5m high wall across the railway line (no mortar). The train crew did an emergency stop and hence avoided hitting it (thankfuly).
Had it been one of the 1500+ ton gypsum trains then things may have been different!
So a call to the Police (not 999).
First the transport Police - not interested as not part of the rail netwrok (it is as goods trains use the line)
Next Leicestershire Police - not interested as the main centre is in Nottinghamshire
Finaly Nottinghamshire Police - not interested as the incident occured in Leaicestershire.
You couldn't make it up and consequently we are having to go to the compliants commission to even get the incident registered!
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so what would happen if you on payg phone run out of credit and can't ring police. are we supposed to stand watching old lady getting mugged?
or scratch around at a phone box for change
but I see where it's coming from if it creates a better service
That was my initial feeling as well Ian.
What a daft and ludicrous change this would be!! :o :o :o :o >:(
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And since when did the police service (kent)employ the service of a customer service manager???? ffs when i dail 999 cos my neighbours house is being broken into i want a plod either walking/biking/driving or even flying i am not fussed...what i dont want is a customer (when did i become a customer???) service manager ringing me up saying 'oh we cant come for another hour'...they soon got their sorry arses up here when i said don't wory 5 of us will sort it and hand them over to you when you ordane to turn up....i had 2 cars and a rowdy wagon with 2 minutes
now what was the customer service bod saying about not being able to turn up???? ???
You would be surprised TAM as to the number of civilians there are behind the scenes in Kent Police, and no doubt other forces. Even on the custody suite desks you can have a civilian undertaking the admin duties. Throughout training there are civilians, albeit some ex-job, and in administration roles, such as in "customer care" where they certainly operate on a regular basis.
The whole aim is to keep full police officers out on the streets tackling their duties, although still a great deal of time is used up in filling in forms and writing statements. Two or even three hours of any shift can be used for that purpose, although some of that can go on after an officers shift, into overtime. ;)
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Which pleb :-X thought of this ::)
Picture this ..................... Walking down the street .................... you see a crime being committed ................... life is in danger ............. you have NO MOBILE PHONE ............. you see a phone box (that works :o) ............... you pick up the reciever and dial 999 .............. the screen says 50 pence please ................. you have no money SO THE PERSON DIES >:( >:( >:(
Total 'dangle berries' imo >:(
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The trouble is, what do you call.
We had an incident recently where some 'youths' had construted a 1.5m high wall across the railway line (no mortar). The train crew did an emergency stop and hence avoided hitting it (thankfuly).
Had it been one of the 1500+ ton gypsum trains then things may have been different!
So a call to the Police (not 999).
First the transport Police - not interested as not part of the rail netwrok (it is as goods trains use the line)
Next Leicestershire Police - not interested as the main centre is in Nottinghamshire
Finaly Nottinghamshire Police - not interested as the incident occured in Leaicestershire.
You couldn't make it up and consequently we are having to go to the compliants commission to even get the incident registered!
Makes you wonder what would have happened from a response point of view if the train had hit the obstruction :o
Fwiw, the 101 number seems to work ok here aboots. You can tell if the operator is having 'one of those days' though.
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...they soon got their sorry arses up here when i said don't wory 5 of us will sort it and hand them over to you when you ordane to turn up....i had 2 cars and a rowdy wagon with 2 minutes
now what was the customer service bod saying about not being able to turn up???? ???
Calls are graded. Unless you expect the call taker to magic some more police officers from a box under the desk, an assault with injury is going to rank higher than a simple burglary. Equally, now you've got the response you wanted, someone else is further down the list and waiting longer.
The police service is far too top heavy (notice how the car park at the local nick fills up about half eight on Monday and empties at half four on Friday...) - but unless we get more police officers on the beat, and less paper weight (see what I did there) around their necks, someone is going to suffer the effects. In many places, they already are.
Some will point out that the number of police officers has increased in the last 100 years, but so has both crime*, and the amount of hoops to be jumped through when dealing with them. Does anyone actually want police officers sitting in an office for hours filing reports for fairly minor criminal damage and verbal abuse incidents, as opposed to a ten-minute handover to the custody Sgt and back out on the street? Has anyone asked us?
*naturally, some would look at the statistics and say that police officers are in fact causing crime... ;)
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I've used the 101 number a couple of times and found it to be quite efficient. I was even put through to a plod at my localish station on one occasion. :) However both times I used the number it was just an enquiry and not urgent. :-\
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I always call the main merseyside switchboard for non emergency stuff and it works a treat, through to the local nick if I ask for it. I have a few senior officers mobiles should I ever need it though :y
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i think if theyre trying to cut down on hoax calls and unneccesary calls then the call should remain free to allow for genuine but any timewasters should be billed a certain amount
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As for the question of cost, it should be a no charge call (its not free as we already pay for the cost via taxes in the same way as the NHS is not free).
Bottom line is idiots are idiots and adding a cost will make little difference
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As for the question of cost, it should be a no charge call (its not free as we already pay for the cost via taxes in the same way as the NHS is not free).
Bottom line is idiots are idiots and adding a cost will make little difference
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In a Nutshell! ;D :D
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The last time I called an Ambulance via the 999 system I was connected to a very pleasant lady in Scotland.
I was in a country lane - name unknown
outside a church - she couldn't track it down via the name
If I had spoken to a local person the ambulance would have been there in about 5 mins.
Instead 15 mins later the ambulance crew phoned to get the location.
I mentioned the church and he said ok I know where that is.
QED! :y