Countdown to SNEN lift-off

With the Single Non-Emergency Number (SNEN) demonstration starting in a couple of months, it’s been ‘all go’.

Recruiting and training call centre staff, developing call handling processes, liaising with districts, and sorting out the IT and accommodation requirements for the new service are all coming together nicely.

“Things are looking good for the November start,” says SNEN Project Manager Superintendent Steve Christian.

The Northern Communications Centre’s lower floor is being renovated to accommodate the SNEN call centre.

Seventeen desks are being installed for the team of 36 customer service advisers. They’ll be joined by the centre manager and five service adviser leaders. Two deployment advisers will be based in Auckland City District and another two in Bay of Plenty District.

The service will operate 24/7 and staff will be rostered according to call demand.

Steve says the SNEN project team has done a huge amount of work to get the right processes in place to make sure calls are handled effectively from the time a member of the public picks up the phone right through to resolution.

“We expect calls will fall into four broad categories – offences or incidents requiring police action; complaints and praise; matters for another part of police or a partner agency; and requests for advice or information.

“We’ve developed some pretty robust processes and call handling standards
based on heaps of input from a range of people to make sure the calls are resolved effectively, so I’m expecting we’ll be able to deliver a good service to the public.”

The call handling standards have earned Police a Certificate of Merit from the Office of Ethnic Affairs for being the first government department to offer a positive ethnic service ethic.

Steve says his team is looking forward to the demonstration starting. “A lot of people have worked incredibly hard to get us to this point. We’re all looking forward to seeing it spring into action,” he says.