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Chief Constable Craig Guildford has recorded a special thank you message for the force's call centre staff to mark International Control Room Week, a week dedicated to celebrating the unsung heroes of the Control Room. The latest national policing figures have shown that West Midlands Police is one of the best police forces in the country for answering the public’s calls for service. When the Chief Constable joined the force in 2022, West Midlands Police was positioned at the bottom of national league tables, with people dialling the non-emergency 101 number, waiting on average 30 minutes for their call to be answered. Now, thanks to major changes which included more jobs and apprenticeships, better training and scrutiny, significant investment in new technology and staff operating from a single site, the force is now one of the top performing forces in the UK for answering calls for service. He said: "This week is International Control Room Week and I’m here to say a huge thank you to everyone in Force Contact. "From those that answer the phone or work on our Digi Desk, to dispatch and ANPR [automatic numberplate recognition] teams, they’re absolutely first class. "So, on behalf of the organisation, I say thank you to all of the staff who work here and help us police the West Midlands." A spokesman for West Midlands Police said "International Control Room Week allows organisations around the world celebrate the heroes in headsets who keep their operations going. "From managing public contact offices to monitoring CCTV, answering calls for service to investigating crime, dispatching resources and validating crime reports, Force Contact is the first, and last, point of contact for most service users. "So far this year, they’ve answered 780,159 101 calls, responded to a 999 call every 20 seconds, and dispatched officers to up to 570 emergency incidents a day. "They also monitor more than 100 CCTV cameras across the region, develop 200 colleagues at their West Bromwich training academy and manage 121,668 visits to police stations across 11 sites."
