The Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa has commended the flagship Gauteng 10111 Performance Improvement Programme for its successes to date, in the improvement of reporting of cases to the police.
The programme, located in Midrand, is facilitated by Business Against Crime South Africa (BACSA) in partnership with the South African Police Service (SAPS). It has been delivering excellent results which are compatible with industry standards. Some of the notable outcomes resulting from the intervention have included assessments from July last year to October this year. In July 2008 the cost per compliant call was R4 800, in November 2008 reduced to R89.84 and in October 2009, this had been significantly reduced to R4.54.
“We are pleased about the progress of this flagship programme in the fight against crime. We remain confident that the lessons learnt here will assist in improved efficiency, timeous and better management of calls when society reports crimes to the police. We equally expect the police once alerted, to respond and act swiftly,” stated the Minister.
Minister Mthethwa has described the programme as a catalyst in ensuring that criminals are dealt a blow in their acts. “While we acknowledge that there may have been some teething challenges at some of the centres across the country, this programme demonstrates our new approach in fighting crime. We are not just utilising and purchasing new tools but also manage and improve current resources at our disposal.”
According to Dr. Graham Wright, CEO of BACSA this programme has demonstrated that improved performance can be achieved with a smaller human resource complement that is well-capacitated, evaluated and coached on a regular basis.
“The programme has shown us 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.”
He added that BACSA’s involvement in the programme has entailed the profiling of call-takers and dispatchers to determine capacity building needs. These included ensuring independent quality assurance, performance evaluation systems and processes; developing flexible shift hours to reduce the high rate of abandoned calls as well as introduction of a process whereby identified underperformers are coached by supervisors and shift commanders.
The department has been tracking the percentage of calls to 10111 that are picked up by operators for the 2008/09 financial year and the period 1 April 2009 to 31 October 2009. The number of calls for the 2008/09 was 999 551 160 whereas 3 976 543 for the period 1 April 2009 – 31 October 2009. The current available equipment does not have the functionality to retrieve the number of calls put on hold, not answered and abandoned before being answered, but plans are advanced to ensure that such a system is implemented in due course.
An estimated 76% of all calls received from the public are typically non-police related. These calls vary from prank calls, to emergency services enquiries, (for ambulance and fire brigade services), requesting of road directions to hospitals, hotels and requesting legal advice relating to domestic violence and/or other personal problems.
The Minister appealed to the society to ensure that calls channelled to the Call Centres serve the purpose: 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.”
The pilot programme is nearing the completion stage and a blue-print for the programme is being drawn up. Once completed, this programme 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.
For enquiries, please contact:
Zweli Mnisi
Ministerial Spokesperson
Cell: 082 045 4024
Dr. Graham Wright
CEO of BACSA
Cell: 083 252 5727
Issued by: Ministry of South African Police Service and Business against Crime South Africa
16 December 2009
