Police Emergency Services Quality Service Charter

This Charter

What is the Emergency Rapid Response Service?

Objectives

What is a real emergency?

Calling 112 only in an emergency

Our Standards

If you want to complain about our service

Give us your suggestions

This Charter

The mission statement of the Police Force is to promote and maintain our country as a safe and secure state.

This Charter is intended to inform you about the Police Emergency Services and the standards we aim to reach when we assist you in an emergency.

As emergency response handlers, we are responsible for the Emergency Rapid Response service. This means that we deal with all emergencies lodged with the Command and Control Centre of the Police Department through 112 calls.

Our aim is to assist and support you in your emergency and achieve the standards outlined in this Charter.

A real emergency is one that poses an immediate threat to your life and property, such as, personal physical attacks and break-ins. Other situations that we consider emergencies are the following:

• traffic accidents with fatalities and/or injuries
• bomb threats.

If your emergency or the one that you are witness to requires police assistance, dial 112 immediately.

When you dial 112, we will assess whether your emergency requires our help. In this case, you will be immediately assisted.

We receive an average of 240 calls on 112 every day of which 80% are not real emergencies. You can help us reduce this abuse by calling 112 only in the case of a real emergency. Please do not misuse the 112 number as this may prevent someone with a real emergency from getting through.

If you need to call the police and it is not a real emergency, please call the Police General Headquarters on 21224001-7 or your local Police Station.

Still, do not hesitate to call 112 when you think it is a real emergency. It is better to be safe than sorry.

When you have an emergency and dial 112 you can expect us to:

• answer your call within 15 seconds
• respond with courtesy and attention in every emergency
• identify ourselves at your request
• professionally assess how urgent your call is in order to dispatch the appropriate help needed for your emergency.
• do our best to ensure that a police unit reaches you within 15 minutes when your call has been assessed as a genuine emergency
• follow the call through until your emergency has been resolved or police have arrived to your assistance.

All 112 calls are subject to assessment before the level of response is decided upon. Only 112 calls which are genuinely urgent will be responded to on an emergency basis.

We assure you that full confidentiality will be maintained when we answer your emergency call.

If you want to complain about our service

If you feel that we have not met the standards we have set or if you are otherwise dissatisfied with our service delivery you can complete a complaints form which is available from the Commissioner’s Office, all Police Stations and Local Councils and send it to:

Inspector i/c Complaints

Commissioner’s Office

Police General Headquarters

Floriana

You may alternatively call personally at the General Headquarters, any local Police Station or Local Council Office and ask for the duty officer’s assistance in filling the complaints form.

You will receive an acknowledgment within three working days of receipt of your complaint. We will also send you regular reports on the progress of the investigation until its conclusion.

When lodging a complaint you have the right to remain anonymous but in this case we will be unable to update you with progress made in the investigation.

If you are still not satisfied, you may refer your case to the Office of the Ombudsman.

We will do our best to maintain the standards outlined in this Charter and will make every effort to improve our service. You can help us do this by filling in a feedback form which is available from the Commissioner’s Office and all Police Stations. We welcome your suggestions as these help us improve the service that we give you.

updated March 2007