Mike Gallacher
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Shadow Minister for Police, Shadow Minister for the Hunter
Shadow Minister for Police Mike Gallacher has expressed his outrage at the latest figures showing that victims of crime can spend more than 3 minutes waiting for their calls for help to be answered.
“An analysis of the published figures reveal that on 34 days so far this year it has taken on average more than 90 seconds to answer calls to the Police Assistance Line.
“On only 37 out of 141 days did the PAL answer 80% of calls within 27 seconds.
“In 2002 then Police Minister, Michael Costa, promised the community that delays in the PAL call centres had been rectified.
ReplyDelete“The Minister stated that PAL had a performance goal of 27 seconds to answer calls, which was the national benchmark for handling emergency calls.
“He promised that 80% of calls would be answered within 27 seconds.
“The Police Assistance Line is getting no where near these targets on most days.
“This crisis within PAL is not about a lack of funding – it is about a Government not caring about the victims of crime.
“The Iemma Labor Government is telling the community that they do not want to know about crime. They would rather that the victims of crime wait on the end of an unanswered phone.
“Victims of crime who called the Police Assistance Line last weekend waited on average more than two minutes for their call to be answered,” Mr Gallacher said.
“It is patently clear that the situation is grim now the weekly and monthly statistics have been removed from the website.
“What the statistics were showing is that between June and December last year the average wait had blown out from 15 seconds to 57 seconds. In light of the current figures, now even 57 seconds looks like a short wait.
“With its current resources and structure the Police Assistance Line is failing to do what it is suppose to do – assist the victims of crime,” Mr Gallacher concluded.