News / Police control rooms close
POLICE control rooms in Inverness and Aberdeen will close later this year with all command calls being handled by Dundee, while 101 and 999 emergency calls to be transferred to national virtual service centre at Bilston Glen, Police Scotland have said.
The move was originally planned for last year but was halted following an investigation into a fatal M9 crash near Stirling.
John Yuill and Lamara Bell died after it took officer three days to attend the crash site.
On Monday, Police Scotland said the change would be managed in a “safe and assured way”.
A statement said: “Today, staff were informed of the latest developments, which include potential dates for changes to be implemented.
“This is an indicative timeline which will be subject to scrutiny and independent review prior to implementation, in keeping with HMICS recommendations.
“We also informed them that we plan to work towards moving all 101 and 999 Emergency calls from Dundee into the National Virtual Service Centre, based at Bilston Glen, Govan and Motherwell, with effect from late June 2016.
“By late August 2016 we propose to have moved all telephony within Inverness (101 and 999 calls) to the National Virtual Service Centre and at the same time all command and control functionality will pass across to Dundee Regional Control Room.
“By late October 2016, in a similar fashion to Inverness, it is proposed all telephony and command and control functionality will switch from Aberdeen to the National Virtual Service Centre and the Dundee Regional Control Room.”
No changes will be implemented until they have been approved by Scottish Police Authority.
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