Bedfordshire Police admits further improvements needed to provide best possible service to the public

Bedfordshire Police said it still needs to make improvements in order to provide the best possible service to its public, a meeting heard.

Bedfordshire’s police and crime commissioner, Festus Akinbusoye, used this month’s Delivery and Beating Crime Meeting (September 22) to again share residents’ concerns over the service provided by the local force.

He said that the most common concern raised by Bedfordshire residents is how long they have to wait to be answered when contacting the force’s control room.

“How long they’re having to wait when they either go on online, or if they make 101 or 999 calls,” he said.

“Can I get an update on what the force is doing to try and deal with this,” he asked Bedfordshire Police’s executive officers.

Assistant chief constable, Sharn Basra, said: “There’s two elements to the challenges that we face there.

“One is in relation to recruitment and the numbers of people within the team, and we’ve got a number of vacancies across all different sections and component parts of the control room.

“Previously we have had some challenges in terms of filling those but we’ve gone with a new revised recruitment campaign and we’re starting to see some real interest in those roles.

“But that will clearly take some time to transition to get those people in.

“We have significant gaps and vacancies, and we do fill those with overtime, but there is light at the end of the tunnel in terms of recruitment,” he said.

Temporary chief constable, Trevor Rodenhurst, said: “One of the main reasons why we’re wrestling with vacancies there is because people leave the control room to join the police.

“That isn’t a problem, it’s a by-product of an entry pathway into policing.

“And they’re better police officers by the way for that experience,” he said.

The ACC said the second challenge is the record breaking number of calls coming in.

“We’ve seen the highest number of 999 calls in [the last] two months than for the previous 12 months,” he said.

“[And] the highest number of 101 calls since October 21, so that illustrates the sheer demand that comes in.

“As a force we are making month-to-month improvement in terms of answering calls.

“We acknowledge that we still need to make further improvements in order to provide the best possible service to our public,” he said.

The T/CC added: “We have experienced record demand and we do expect demand to continue to grow.

“There isn’t a switch you can just click overnight and this isn’t unique to Bedfordshire, it is a national pressure.

“So that is a policing challenge but one we are focused on, and it’s an area, just to reassure you, that we are prioritising as an equal priority to bringing in the uplift of officers,” he said.