Telephone availability boosts dispatch efficiency

The Brasschaat, Noord, and Schoten police districts

Depending on the type of incident involving a local police officer – e.g., an accident or a robbery – they’ll contact the inspector or officer currently on dispatch duty at the criminal investigation unit, federal or judicial police. To streamline the process, the police districts of Brasschaat, Noord (Kapellen/Stabroek), and Schoten joined forces. “We'd already been using Voice Managed Services (VMS) for a while,” says Jef Van Hemelryk, Schoten Police District Senior ICT Policy Advisor. “That system automatically redirects incoming calls to the right place, i.e., the emergency 101 number or Dispatch.

Voice Managed Services for Dispatch

The Schoten Police District felt like the approach was a good solution for Dispatch. “A local police officer should always be able to reach a colleague in Dispatch,” Van Hemelryk explained. “There are three dispatch services on duty around the clock.” The Brasschaat and Schoten Police Districts had already been partnering on this for some time. “When the Noord Police District decided to sign on, we started looking for a more structured approach.”

Now there’s a single number for Dispatch that covers the three districts.

Jef Van Hemelryk, Schoten Police District's Senior ICT Policy Advisor

Cutting down on lost time

In the past, local police officers would first have to look up who was on duty at the time of the call. If they turned out to be unavailable, the officer would have to look up who the scheduled back-up was. “Occasionally that meant pointless time wasted,” said Van Hemelryk. “These days, every local police officer has a smartphone. For requests for coworkers in the federal or judicial police, or the criminal investigation unit, VMS automatically patches the caller through to the right person in Dispatch. There’s now a single number covering the three district’s three separate dispatch services.”

Jef Van Hemelryk, Schoten Police District Senior ICT Policy Advisor

A secure cloud

The VMS solution runs in a secure Proximus cloud. Administrators of the three police districts can add or remove dispatch users via a portal. “It's a seamless process,” said Van Hemelryk. “And if something isn’t completely clear, we can always contact the Proximus helpdesk.” The inspector or officer on duty logs into the portal, and the system automatically routes calls to the appropriate person. All combined, there are 300 employees across the three police districts using the solution. Just under 50 of those are assigned to Dispatch.

Better service

“The way we work and communicate is changing,” Van Hemelryk continued. “And it's the same story with the police. We’re constantly looking for ways to optimize our work routines. VMS offered us a way to boost Dispatch’s accessibility. What’s more, by joining forces, we managed to do it for three different police districts simultaneously. The goal is to improve the local police force’s internal operations. It allows us to speed up our response time. In that way, VMS also helps us provide citizens with a better service.”