Visit to police call centre

The event hosted by Inspector Clive Beatty, the service delivery manager for the Northern Contact Management Centre, allowed the co-ordinators to experience how emergency and non-emergency calls were dealt with by PSNI and how police resources were prioritised for calls from the public.

Councillor Thomas Conway, Chairman of the Derry Policing and Community Safety Partnership, said: “This was an excellent opportunity for the Neighbourhood Watch Coordinators to get first-hand experience of how calls from the public are dealt with by the PSNI. The centre at Maydown receives calls from the nine Northern council areas, stretching from Larne to Derry and an invaluable insight was provided by Inspector Beatty and his team”.

Tracy Morroi, one of the coordinators on the visit, said: “I found the session to be excellent and extremely informative. This is something that Neighbourhood Watch coordinators are definitely interested in as shown by the number who attended. Thanks to this opportunity we are now better informed and understand how calls from the public are dealt with and prioritised by the police.”

Inspector Beatty, said: “When a member of the public telephones the police, it is an exercise that is rarely undertaken lightly. Whether reporting a crime or incident, requiring police attendance or simply seeking to pass on information, making direct contact with the police is a major step and can be unnerving for many citizens. Information obtained through such contact is the lifeblood of effective policing and, therefore, it is important for all parties concerned that callers’ experiences are consistently positive, encouraging further contact and even better exchange of information.