Mthethwa commends performance of 10111

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Pretoria - Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa has commended the flagship Gauteng 10111 Performance Improvement Programme for its successes to date as well as the improvement of reporting of cases to the police.

The programme, based in Midrand, is facilitated by Business Against Crime South Africa (BACSA) in partnership with the South African Police Service (SAPS).

Mthethwa said it had been delivering excellent results which were compatible with industry standards.

Some of the outcomes resulting from the programme have included assessments from July last year to October this year. In July 2008, the cost per complaint call was R4800.00, in November 2008 it was reduced to R89.84 and in October 2009, this had been significantly reduced to R4.54.

"We are pleased about the progress of this programme in the fight against crime and remain confident that the lessons learnt will assist in improved efficiency, timeous and better management of calls when society reports crimes to the police," he said.

He noted that while there may have been some teething problems at some of the centres across the country, the programme demonstrates their new approach in fighting crime.

"We are not just utilising and purchasing new tools but also manage and improve current resources at our disposal," Mthethwa said, adding that the department expected the police to respond and act swiftly once alerted.

During 2008/09, 999 551 160 calls were received compared to 3 976 543 for the period 1 April 2009 to 31 October 2009.

However, about 76 percent of calls received from the public include prank calls, emergency services enquiries, requests for road directions to hospitals, hotels and request for legal advice relating to domestic violence and/or other personal problems.

Mthethwa appealed to the public to ensure that calls channelled to the call centres serve the purpose, which is reporting criminals.

"In our crime-fighting approaches, we constantly appeal to communities to partner with police in reporting criminals, however, if we continuously receive prank or non-police related calls, we will not only cause unnecessary delays to the system but keep more and more criminals on the loose."

BACSA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Graham Wright said the programme has shown them that profiling of candidates during the selection and recruitment stage is vital to achieving good results.

"We managed to leverage private sector skills, experience, quality assurance and performance evaluation scorecards into the operational management procedures of the centre," Dr Wright said.

The pilot programme is nearing the completion stage and a blue-print for the programme is being drawn up.

Once completed, it will be rolled-out to other SAPS call centres with the objective of achieving performance results that meet the requirements of the community and the police targets.