New jobs created in the Highlands to support call handling for Police Scotland
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A total of 15 new posts have been created in the Highlands to further enhance the development of call handling services for Police Scotland.
The 15 resolution team assistants will support a specialist team of officers and staff already working in the resolution team based at the Old Perth Road headquarters in Inverness.
The team has been in place since last October, providing additional resilience to 101 and 999 services and bringing their enhanced local knowledge and experience of policing urban, remote and island communities to the national Contact Command and Control service.
Members of the public still contact Police Scotland via 999, 101 or at their local police office, however trained officers and staff – who are the first point of contact – make an enhanced assessment of threat, harm, risk and vulnerability to ensure the matter is correctly prioritised.
They can provide advice and resolve suitable enquiries from the public over the telephone, by face-to-face appointment (where appropriate in certain areas) or via video link.
The ability to conduct this enhanced assessment of vulnerability on every call and provide increased resolution options allows us to provide the right response to every caller.
It also provides additional resilience and enables Police Scotland to maximise its resources to ensure frontline policing is protected during the coronavirus pandemic.
Assistant Chief Constable John Hawkins said: “Police Scotland remains absolutely committed to decentralising its workforce and ensuring national resources are distributed around the country.
"The establishment of the Inverness Resolution Team has been a major investment in services in the north and a significant milestone in the ongoing development of call handling services for Scotland.
“The creation of 15 new posts is a welcome addition to the specialist team already in place, who have been playing a vital role in supporting and protecting members of the public at this challenging time.”
Councillor Matthew Reiss, Highland Council’s strategic lead for police and fire, welcomed the announcement and said: “We were delighted in October last year to welcome 25 new jobs in Inverness with the creation of a specialist call handling service team and these 15 additional new posts based in the Highlands are great news.
“These high-quality service sector police jobs are a welcome boost to our community especially when we are seeing increasing unemployment. Local knowledge and experience of policing urban, remote and island communities is also very important.
"We were promised that jobs would be decentralised to remote areas out with the central belt and I think this is what decentralisation is all about.
"This shows that Police Scotland have listened and still are. The Chief Constable told us he would deliver tangible results and now we are pleased to see this being delivered.
"This pandemic has demonstrated that people can perform all kinds of vital work remotely from every corner of the land, provided there is adequate connectivity and we hope to see more jobs like this coming our way. It is indeed good news for the north.”
For further information on the posts, visit the Police Scotland website.
