POLICE officers in the Lothians are dealing with thousands of incidents over the phone in a bid to free up more officers on the beat.
The Lothian and Borders force has introduced a system where experienced officers determine whether non-urgent calls can be handled without sending anyone to the scene.
Police chiefs insist the move saves frontline officers attending more than 1000
minor incidents a month, and cuts down drastically on the amount of paperwork.
But it raised concerns today that officers will no longer provide reassurance to the public in many cases by appearing in person.
The divisional operational support units operate 24 hours a day from St Leonard's police station in Edinburgh, while units also work from 7am until 11pm at stations in Dalkeith, Livingston and Hawick.
Each unit consists of four constables and a sergeant who are usually selected for their experience and local knowledge.
Almost half of the non-urgent, calls received by the force communication centre at Bilston Glen are now transferred to the support units.
The handlers can either deal with the matter over the phone or arrange a station appointment with the caller – or, if they deem it necessary, send out a local officer.
Chief Inspector Kevin Greig, manager of the divisional intelligence unit which incorporates the support units, said: "The calls which come to us are still relevant to the police but often do not require attendance in person.
"This is not about the force lacking resources, this is about maximising what we have – and the feedback we've had from callers has been very good.
"It allows us to focus on patrols, respond to emergencies and urgent incidents and conduct investigations."
Chief Insp Greig added that the specialist teams were better placed to spot crime trends from calls, such as a spate of similar vandal attacks. This intelligence is passed on to officers during morning briefings before they go about their duties.
The support units were set up in October and a six-month review, carried out to gauge their impact, showed that the teams dealt with 44 per cent of all non-urgent calls over the past six months, reducing the number of incidents attended by officers by an average of 1162 a month.
In addition, 5869 crime reports were submitted by the units, amounting to an average of 978 per month – reports that officers did not need to leave their patrol duties to input.
But the new system attracted criticism that officers should not avoid the personal touch of meeting callers in person.
Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken said: "I think the public expect the police to attend at the locus following a complaint.
Clearly in many incidents this need not happen immediately, but the police should turn up, albeit a couple of days later.
"This gives officers the opportunity to look at what's going on there and provide reassurance to the public that the matter is being dealt with seriously."
The full article contains 501 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
