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Cleveland Police takes control room in-house

14/03/19

Mark Say Managing Editor

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Cleveland Police has announced that it is to take its control room back in-house from Sopra Steria on 1 May.

It said that it has come to a mutual agreement with the company – which has run the control room as part of a wider deal since 2010 – to make the change before the contract was scheduled to come to an end in October 2020.

This is being done to allow senior officers to bring in changes to support frontline policing, and is part of the Transforming Cleveland Police programme.

All control room staff, including call handlers, who are directly employed by Sopra Steria will TUPE transfer to Cleveland Police.

Flexibility and responsibility

Assistant Chief Officer Brian Thomas said: “The control room is at the heart of our daily interactions with the public and the way people want to communicate with us has changed over time. By bringing the control room back in-house this year we can implement changes with increased flexibility to help us meet the demands that we face and our responsibilities to local people.

“We have a good partnership with Sopra Steria and they have assisted us with achieving financial savings over the term of the contract.”

Police and Crime Commissioner Barry Coppinger made the decision last year that the Sopra Steria contract would not be extended beyond its natural end in October 2020.

He said: “We began our partnership with Sopra Steria nearly a decade ago and since 2010 the numbers of emergency calls into Cleveland Police has risen dramatically over recent years. The force received 23,000 more 999 calls in 2018 than in 2010, an increase of 28%.

“I am committed to refocusing and boosting the control room and support the early return back to the force which will allow for a renewed way of working in these current times.”

Image: Matty Ring, CC BY 2.0 through flickr

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