The Police Assistance Line (PAL) is available 24-hours a day, seven days a week for reporting minor crimes and non-urgent incidents. It is operated by a contact centre with sites at Tuggerah and Lithgow. The centre took 487,000 PAL calls in 2005-06.

The primary objective of the PAL is to maximise police presence on the street by providing the community with an alternative point of contact. The PAL was also intended to deliver caller benefits through more convenient and speedy access to police, and accurate and consistent policing advice.

This follow-up audit examines the progress NSW Police has made in addressing the key findings and implementing recommendations of our 2003 audit.

Since our last audit, the contact centre which operates the PAL has also taken on responsibility for the Police switchboard and around 70 per cent of Triple Zero (000) calls. Whilst outside the scope of this audit, this represents a significant expansion of the contact centre’s role. NSW Police reports that the transfer of Triple Zero has led to cost savings and improved performance for time taken to answer calls.

Audit opinion

In this 2006 follow-up audit, we found that NSW Police had addressed most of the key areas for improvement we identified in 2003.

The contact centre which operates the PAL is well managed, and has implemented several improvements since our 2003 audit. The centre’s speed in answering and handling PAL calls is better than in 2003. Caller satisfaction with PAL services is high, and NSW Police calculate it releases 200 police for frontline duty. The centre also receives around 4,000 enquiry calls each week further reducing the load on local police.

Whilst the time taken to answer calls by the PAL is less than in 2002-03, it has increased recently. The explanation seems to be lower than required staffing levels due to higher than anticipated attrition rates, and delays and difficulties in recruiting staff.

When it does not have enough staff the centre gives priority to Triple Zero calls, which increases the time taken to answer PAL calls. While this is appropriate risk management, it should not become the norm and NSW Police needs to resource the centre so it can achieve both Triple Zero and PAL targets. This may require more resources and greater use of automated, self-service technologies to achieve further efficiencies.

NSW Police also needs to do more to promote the PAL, both in the community and with local police. Only about half the reports of less serious crime are made to the PAL, with the rest to local police. This is the same as in 2002. The greater the proportion of such reports made to the PAL, the more police will be released for frontline duty.

NSW Police should also continue to review its other telephony services to see if the centre could provide those services more efficiently.

Our 2003 audit

Key findings of 2003 audit

In 2003, our opinion was that there had been an improvement in caller service since the PAL commenced in 2000. We found that:

• the average time to answer a call had fallen from over two minutes in 2000 to 42 seconds in 2003

• PAL was not meeting its performance target of 80 per cent of calls answered in 27 seconds

• around half of minor crime and non-urgent incidents were reported to the PAL

• calls to PAL (131444) had increased by around 30 per cent from 443,700 in 1999-2000 to 578,170 in 2001-02.

We also reported that the contact centre:

• did not assess caller satisfaction with its services

• was making limited use of automated service technologies

• had a quality assurance program in place to check the accuracy and appropriateness of information provided to callers.

Appendix 2 outlines the 2003 recommendations and provides a summary of NSW Police’s progress in implementing them.

Key findings of this 2006 follow-up audit

Chapter 1:

Is the PAL performing better?

The contact centre’s performance in answering PAL calls has improved. The average time to answer calls, percentage of calls answered within 27 seconds and PAL call abandonment rates are all better than in 2002‑03. In particular, the contact centre has met its target of answering 80 per cent of PAL calls in 27 seconds in each of the last three years although there have been some days and months where it has not done so.

The contact centre’s average handling time for calls to the PAL has also fallen, but changes to NSW Police procedures and PAL call types since our 2003 audit mean we can not be sure whether this represents improved performance.  For example, more detailed requirements for recording of break and enter incidents have increased the handling time for such calls. On the other hand, the PAL is now required to respond to non-urgent alarm calls, which generally take less time to process than the average call.

While time to answer calls is better than in 2002-03, it increased in 2005-06. NSW Police advise that this is due to a shortage of staff taking calls resulting from higher than expected attrition rates and difficulties and delays recruiting new staff. NSW Police may have also underestimated the resources needed to meet consistently both Triple Zero and PAL time to answer targets. It is reviewing the contact centre’s workload and resourcing requirements.

The contact centre now undertakes an independent annual caller survey. The two surveys indicate that caller satisfaction with the centre is high, at more than 90 per cent.

NSW Police calculates that about 200 police were released to frontline duty by the PAL in 2005-06. This is below the number NSW Police expected the PAL to release.

Chapter 2:

Is the contact centre better managed?

The contact centre which operates the PAL is well managed, and it has made a number of improvements to its practices since 2003.

It has a suite of indicators covering efficiency, timeliness, quality and caller satisfaction. It has a target for PAL call answering, but should establish benchmarks or targets for service quality, caller satisfaction, and the proportion of reports it takes.

The contact centre has systems which assure the quality of information and advice given to callers, the accuracy and completeness of crime recording, and efficiency of staff. It has mechanisms to obtain feedback from local police on their satisfaction with the PAL, but these could be stronger and more formal. It also participates in a range of forums where it exchanges experience and knowledge with other public and private sector contact centre managers.

The centre is also providing more services through email and the internet than in 2003. It would like to use these technologies more, but is reportedly constrained by NSW Police’s mainframe computer system.

NSW Police could better quantify savings arising from transferring call handling to the centre. This is important for both accountability and to inform its decisions about what other telephony business should be transferred to the centre.

NSW Police should do more to promote the PAL to enable the release of more police for frontline duties.  At present, it takes about half of all reports of less serious crime, with the rest going to local police. This is about the same as the level reported in our 2003 audit.

NSW Police reports PAL performance on its website for the previous week, but should also provide long term data in its annual report to help Parliament and the public better assess the PAL’s performance.

Response from NSW Police

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comment on the report; ‘Follow-up of 2003 Performance Audit’ of the NSW Police Assistance Line (PAL). 
 

As you are aware, the 2003 audit report provided positive commentary on PAL. Subsequently, NSW Police responded to the report by implementing the majority of recommendations made by the Audit Office.  I am therefore pleased that the follow up report recognises the further improvements made since 2003, and that it acknowledges that PAL continues to perform strongly.

The staff at PAL are to be congratulated on their efforts and the results they are achieving for NSW Police.
 

I’m sure you are aware that NSW Police continually seeks to enhance our services to the community of NSW.  We therefore welcome the Audit Office’s suggestions for further improvement and we will carefully consider all of them.  In particular, NSW Police is reviewing the arrangements for PAL to ensure that it has adequate resources to meet the increasing demands being placed upon it. I also note the report’s comments regarding the promotion of 131444. The Operational Communications & Information Command, including PAL, will be tasked to develop initiatives to achieve this based on the Audit Office suggestion.
 

Finally, I understand that a high level of co-operation was achieved between NSW Police and the Audit Office during the conduct of this audit. This is very pleasing and I thank all parties involved in the process for their professionalism and efforts.
 

(signed)

K E Moroney AO APM
Commissioner of Police

Dated:  23 November 2006