BY MICHAEL BRESLIN
The PSNI are getting to the scene of an emergency quicker than ever. This was confirmed at last week's meeting of the Fermanagh District Policing Partnership byway of a written response by Chief Inspector Alywin Barton to a member, Mandy Egerton.
She had asked if the PSNI had, as they had promised, increased the percentage of emergency calls responded to within 15 minutes by 2 per cent. And, she noted that the four-year policing plan had a target of responding to 75 per cent of emergency calls within 15 minutes.
Mr Barton assured that this target had indeed been achieved. Last year, he recalled, Police arrived within 15 minutes two-thirds of the time (66.2 per cent); this year, they got to the scene within the 15 minute deadline on 79.2 per cent of the time, a 13 per cent improvement.
Mr Barton commented: "I have not been able to establish where the remainder of the calls were that were not attended to within the target time. However, since all arrival times were recorded, I hope that the technology will either be made available or accessed by my staff top establish this".
Councillor Paul Robinson (Erne East) posed an indirectly-linked question, the PSNI's policy of using marked cars as opposed to unmarked cars. He referred to a recent occasion when Police personnel attended an accident outside Roslea in an unmarked car.
Mr Barton explained that, within Fermanagh, liveried vehicles are used when and where possible: "The fact that a patrol operated without one could be for any of a number of reasons, the availability of patrol, the circumstances of the accident or, perhaps, even because of other tasks they had to complete during the shift".
Later in the meeting, he told Maeve Ferguson that PSNI locally had enjoyed a stable staffing level since his arrival last October, with officers replaced when the occasion arose. He assured her that 'F' District (Fermanagh) would continue to be serviced to the same degree, for some time to come.
"He went on: "After that, I think you must be prepared for reduced staffing levels over the next number of years, bearing in mind that the PSNI will redice from 7,500 officers to 6,028 in 2011. I am not aware how or where this reduction will be experienced but, ultimately, there wll be less Police in the future".
