The Delta Police Department’s new call centre has been such a success that its hours of operation may be expanded.
That’s according to Police Chief Neil Dubord who provided an update to the Delta Police Board on the department’s pilot project that saw the DPD, over the last few months, use its own dispatch for non-emergency calls.
Rather than using E-Comm, the department has been taking non-emergency calls between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
At the board’s June 22 meeting, Dubord, noted E-Comm is still “under significant stress” and that service levels are not meeting expectations.
He said the DPD’s answer times have been less than one minute.
Dubord said the department is now looking at several options including going back to E-Comm, continuing the DPD dispatch between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., looking at workload options to extend the hours to perhaps 10 p.m., or extending the dispatch to become a 24-hour operation.
Having varying budget implications, recommendations are to go to the police board this September.
When he announced the pilot program late last year, Dubord noted that the DPD’s “no call too small” strategy was being challenged due to complaints from the community that the E-Comm delay on the non-emergency side was much too long, with some people waiting up to half-an-hour to be able to get their call answered, if at all.
E-Comm noted that insufficient budgeting and associated staffing levels were contributing to the delays.
The Delta Police non-emergency line can be reached at 604-946-4411.
