Emergency response delayed by two hours

Posted: January 24, 2016

Posted in: Criminal Injury and Assault 

It has been reported that a delay of two hours occurred in police responding to an emergency call after the call was diverted to the wrong police force control room.  The call, which occurred on 29 November 2015, was put through to Merseyside instead of Lancashire as the town of Halsall is on the border of the two counties.  It took Merseyside police two hours to respond to the 999 call and a spokesman for both forces apologised for the delay, which he described as “unacceptable”.

“We accept the delay was unacceptable”

Rosie Cooper, MP for West Lancashire, pointed out that the situation was made worse by Lancashire police failing to send an officer from their station to the crime scene upon receiving the emergency call from the Merseyside station.  The resident in the emergency situation managed to find an alternative telephone number for the Lancashire Police around 25 minutes later.  All in all from the initial call it took the police two hours to attend the emergency.

Speaking on behalf of the police force, a spokesman stated that their service “fell below the standards we expect and which we set ourselves”.  He went on to add: “We accept the delay was unacceptable and feedback has been given to the staff member concerned.  Once patrols arrived at the scene the offender was detained”.  He also added that they were working with BT to improve their call handling.

If you have suffered injury as the victim of crime, and are looking to claim compensation, please contact us. 

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