West Midlands Police now second best for answering 999 calls - after being worst last year
The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner has revealed that nine out of 10 emergency calls are now answered within 10 seconds.
West Midlands Police have said that the new response time marks a huge improvement in the service, after the force ranked the lowest in the country for answering emergency calls last year.
The force now sits in second place in the national league tables for answering times on emergency calls, where it last year they ranked lowest in the country.
West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said building trust and confidence in the force was one of the top priorities and welcomed the upturn in performance.
"If people do not have trust and confidence in policing, it will not be possible to deliver an effective and efficient police service," said Mr Foster.
"For far too long and far too often, despite the hard work of police officers and staff, West Midlands Police was not complying with either its own Citizens Charter or the required service level agreements, in relation to the service provided by force contact and in particular, the answering of 999 and 101 calls.
"However, as a consequence of the Force Contact Optimisation Project, investment and innovation, hard work on the part of officers and staff and the oversight and scrutiny that I have been providing, there has been a significant improvement in performance."
Since April 2023, West Midlands Police has also met the required national standard, with average answering rates falling between four and eight seconds, while only 0.1 per cent of 999 calls are abandoned.
Answering times on 101 calls have also seen an improvement, improving from an average of 10 minutes to 90 seconds between March 2023 and July 2023.
