Police News May - New Zealand Police Association

May 2004 Police News The Voice of PoliceThe history of an ongoing problemThe Police Association first raised issuesrelating to understaffing in Comms in1997. These specifically related to:• Increased workplace stress due tolinking channels, taking 111 calls andstaff turnover.• Difficulty in taking toilet breaks.• Difficulty in obtaining annual leave.• Insufficient debriefing.• Communicators being used too earlyas dispatchers.• Low staff morale.• Staff not having their concernseffectively addressed.• Unnecessary friction being causedbetween street and Comms staff.The Association understands that Policeundertook a survey about stressorsin Central Comms (Wellington) in2003 and in this staff raised similarconcerns.Comms centre management havemade some changes, e.g. implementeda new roster system, put systems inplace to try and ensure that staff getbreaks and seconded some staff toComms centres to lessen the effect ofstaff shortages.The Department gave various undertakingsto address these issues (e.g.limiting the crossover activity betweendispatchers and communicators; workingon providing debriefs and endeavouringto operate a single channel per dispatcheroperation during peak periods). It hasacknowledged previously that staffmorale has been low.An overview of initial findings of the2001 Working Life Survey identified aseries of ongoing problems.• 54% of staff surveyed described theirwork environment as “poor” or “onlyfair”.• 76% of staff felt the stress level ofthe job was either “intermittently” or“constantly” high.• 82% identified their current workloadas being “intermittently” or “constantly”high.• Tellingly, they saw staffing levels forcommunicators (77%) and dispatchers(81%), as “seemingly too low”.• 61% of staff said that they got a breakeither “only in a meal break” or “only inrostered tea/coffee/meal breaks”.Staff say the situation around takingbreaks has improved in the interimbut despite a Department-institutedenforcement regime, some 30%of staff either never take breaks ortake them only occasionally. Somestaff told Police News that they “feltguilty” about taking breaks within anenvironment where staff levels hadnever been optimal.In February 2004, Deputy Commissionerof Operations, Steve Long, in responseto a letter from the Police Association,said: “My experience, and that of staffI have advising me on the tensionsbeing experienced in NorthernCommunications, suggest that Policeare moving in the right direction inregard to the issues you raise.”Mr Long made reference to “thelengths that Comms staff go to, toensure that the dispatch channels aremanaged properly and I know fromfirst hand experience that the safety offront line staff is a key concern”.Mr Long is right on a couple of counts.Firstly, the channels are managedbut under duress and only throughthe overwhelming goodwill of staff.Secondly, he is correct when he saysthat Comms Centre staff have a keyconcern around the safety of frontlinestaff. As one Southern Comms Centrestaff member told Police News, theproblem is two-fold. “It’s aboutstaffing levels, but not only withinComms, it’s also a factor for the guysand girls on the street as well. Therearen’t enough units outside to dealwith the jobs that are going and therearen’t sufficient staff inside Comms todeal with the calls that we get.”Mr Long has given assurances thathe is working on these issues andsays the “effective operation of theCommunication centres is a priority”.The Police Association wants to seea strong case made to Governmentfor additional staff to make thisoperational phase of policing moreeffective, in order to deliver the servicefrontline police and the public deserve.“A fine balancing act” - North Comms ManagerSuperintendent John Lyall, Manager of North Comms, is the first toadmit that Comms centre staff do a great job. “The staff are extremelydedicated and I take my hat off to them every day of the week. Theyhave to put up with all sorts of things and their efficiency is secondto-none,”he said.“Call volumes are increasing in each Communications centre butwe’re keeping a pretty good watch on it. For example, South Commslast year showed in excess of a 10% increase in call volume. Last yearin North Comms, before we actually dropped in staff numbers, wewere reaching our service levels every week. Once you plateau yourstaffing and get your ultimate staffing you don’t get these rejectedand abandoned calls, which all add to our failure to provide theservice. One of the big problems has been that it has taken us about12 months to get back to where we should have been staffing wise.North Comms dropped down to 20 under strength at June last year.We put through [recruited] about 60 staff last year but of course youget attrition with that and we’re talking 12 to 14%, so we expect that’sgoing to be the case and we look ahead to deal with that.”“We haven’t got an abundance of staff and I’d gladly welcome somemore if I was offered them,” Superintendent Lyall said. “In fact thePolice Executive gave temporary funding to the CommunicationsCentres to assist with staffing in the last quarter of this financial year.This was welcomed.”“…we’re looking at a workforce management package, which givesus greater ability to roster staff at the right times using a scientificformula and also it will help us in regulating our breaks. So all thosethings are improvements we’re looking at and we’re looking atimprovements for our own internal systems,” Superintendent Lyallsaid.Superintendent Lyall said Police are continually looking at “efficienciesin the way calls are handled”.“We’re trying to get a call handling time of 180 seconds. We workwith the staff to see if they can manage their calls better, because themore calls they can answer then the less impact there is onstaffing,” he told Police News.Superintendent Lyall said that finding a balance was thekey in Comms centres. “When we get new staff, theircall handling time initially might be 280 to 300 secondson average, but we work with the staff through training anddevelopment to reduce this and to keep the quality of the calls aswell. We’re trying to balance the needs of the staff with the needsof the public and the Department and it can be a bit of a jugglingact.”“Until we can go back and prove [to the Police Executive] that we areoperating as efficiently as we can with our processes and call handling,then we can’t really put our hands up too far for extra staff,” he said.82