Wednesday, 11 May 2005

Dunne welcomes 111 report; calls for immediate action

United Future leader Peter Dunne, who sparked the external review of the police 111 call system in February by revealing that there had been 17 emergency call controversies in three years, today welcomed the findings, and called for immediate implementation.

"The findings are generally very useful, but now we need to see them implemented - and quickly," Mr Dunne said.

"The police have suffered a dramatic loss in public confidence in recent times and implementing these changes will go a considerable way to winning that confidence back."

However, while supportive of a recommended National Advisory Board to oversee the emergency call system, Mr Dunne said it wasn't good enough to just have senior police on the board, as recommended by the report.

"This is a public confidence issue and the public needs to see that they have independent representation on this board if it is to have real credibility," he said.

Mr Dunne said he also backed the addressing of the time taken to answer calls, with 90 percent taking longer than 10 seconds to answer, and the establishing of a national non-emergency line "to basically stop the system getting clogged".

ENDS

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