Cheshire Constabulary has launched an online Public Contact Survey to find out how the people want to engage with police in an ever-changing digital world.
The survey should take no longer than five-minutes to complete and asks questions around how you like to keep in contact with people in general and how you would like to be able to contact police in a non-emergency.
The Constabulary's options for contacting police in a non-emergency are currently by dialling 101 (the police non-emergency number), visiting an enquiry desk at a local police station, speaking to an officer in person at a local police surgery or contacting a named officer via the Cheshire Police website.
Acting Assistant Chief Constable Ngaire Waine said: "We are all now living in a world where we are rapidly becoming more and more reliant on technology and having to adapt to the many daily tasks we do. As we let more technology into our lives, it is changing the way we keep in touch with each other and the way we access our goods and services.
"With this in mind, we're keen to hear from as many Cheshire residents as possible to find out how they are now using new technology and whether they would like us to make it more available for accessing police services.
"The information will be used to help shape and improve how our residents can access police services in non-emergencies situations in the future, and how we can improve our contact with them.
"It is important to point out that the results of this survey will in in no way effect our 999 service and people should always dial 999 where there is a threat to life or a crime is in progress."
Comments
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What happens now is you dial 101. Eventually someone answers from somewhere in Cheshire, so you might have a bit of a job explaining an issue that is locally specific. The person then 'puts you through' to the 'appropriate department/extension' and you are left waiting ages for your call to be answered. Eventually you have to balance whether it's worth wasting more of your life to discuss an issue that the longer you wait is becoming more trivial - so you give up.
I suppose the statistics for police answering calls within a specific time are based on the time to have your first call to the 101 number. The extra 'hours' that are spent waiting to have your call put through to the appropriate department do not count?