Central Communications Command
Background
The Metropolitan Police handles an average of 6,000 emergency 999 calls and over 15,000 non - emergency calls per day. During the months of June and July, up to 10,000 emergency calls are handled every day during peak period. To handle this vast amount and increasing growing number of calls, three communication centres known as “Central Communications Command” are situated across London. Central Communications Command has over 2,000 members of staff working across its three centres.
The three Command Centres are located within London at Bow, Lambeth and Hendon. The centres were opened in 2004, replacing the Information Room at New Scotland Yard, which had previously handled all emergency calls, the existing Borough Control Rooms, which were responsible for local despatch and Telephone Operator Centres, which were responsible for answering all other non-emergency calls. The transition to the three communication centres was completed in 2007.
Central Communications Command provides London with its police response service by handling emergency calls and other incoming calls into the MPS and despatching police officers to deal with incidents across the capital. It also provides specialist police communications support for many large - scale public occasions and events that take place across Europe’s largest city.
The centres provide a range of benefits and have specialised operational floors equipped with the latest communications technology, which enables our operational teams to deliver an improved service to the people of London. The centres are equipped to deal with the current and future demand on the 999 and police response service.
How do we process the calls?
The Metropolitan Police Service utilises two call handling systems. These systems are CAD (Computer Aided Despatch) and CHS (Call Handling System). Our most widely used system is CAD which has been in use for many years. Both systems include a comprehensive geographic information system and allow the operator to log the calls, record the information, and utilize the latest mapping systems to see the destination. The operator can also call up details of the nearest police units available to respond and view lists of assigned and unassigned calls for all boroughs.