Agenda item

Report of the Commissioner.

Members received a report of the Commissioner regarding the Quarter 3 National Lead Force Performance.

There was a discussion on the issue of time taken to answer calls and the link between that and abandoned calls. 30% abandoned calls was considered high. A push toward guiding people to online reporting tools was necessary, to leave the call handlers free to speak to those who needed to (repeat victims, the elderly and vulnerable). Capacity was being built within the contact centre. As part of the user experience, callers would be assured there would be a handler waiting to speak to them when they got through.

There had been an attrition of staff within the contact centre which had impacted the call answering time. If at full staffing capacity, the numbers would improve.

The Chat Bot had managed 800hours (4FTEs) worth of reporting. It was about to commence its second iteration and was proving successful.

Further information was sought on the 50% of reports that don’t meet the target response date of 28 days. For example, were they dropped? When was the next target date for resolution?

Within the report there was no reference to the number of businesses that had reported fraud as a distinct data set to individuals who had reported. This would be an enhanced tool available in the Next Gen service.

There was concern that there was a perception of the public that by reporting, there would not be a reduction in crime. The positive outcomes of the work of the service needed to be reported through the right channels.

Where victims of crime were reporting cases of economic crime, the as NLF, COLP wanted to be as efficient as possible at identifying those where significant funds would be lost or making links to organised crime. It would then be for the local police force to investigate. There was a misconception by those using the service on this point.

The Force wished to maximise prevention and investigation.

Continuous improvement measures were in place for the Cyber Desk, to attract the best individuals to deal with reports from businesses. To triage these report and allocate to the most appropriate organisations to follow up.

Certain parts of the form were to be mandatory for completion, to reduce the need to follow up with the reporter.

There was a brief discussion on the Economic Crime Plan and Economic Crime Bill and Online Safety Bill. An Engagement Plan was requested.

On outcome two, there was a settlement from the spending review which would roll out to many more forces. The ambition was to level up all forces in England and Wales. Members sought more victim stories to help drive this work.

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.