Command & Control
When someone calls 999, they are usually in the worst moment of their day. What happens in the next few seconds — whether the call is answered, how quickly, and how well the person on the other end assesses what is needed — determines everything that follows.
In January 2026 the Police Reform White Paper made answering 999 calls within 10 seconds a legal requirement for all forces in England and Wales — with the Home Secretary able to deploy a Police Performance Improvement Team to take operational oversight of any force that consistently fails to meet it.1 Meeting it requires both the right technology and the right operational model working together. Neither works without the other.
The shift underway is from speed-to-answer as the sole metric toward accuracy-of-assessment. A call answered in six seconds and graded incorrectly has failed. A call answered in 40 seconds with the right vulnerability identified has worked. Suffolk Constabulary reduced 101 abandonment from 43% to 16% — not by replacing their platform but by redesigning who handles what. Lancashire hit 94.4% of 999 calls answered within 10 seconds and a 0.2% abandonment rate. GoodSAM is reducing unnecessary officer deployments in Cambridgeshire by 20% by giving control rooms eyes on a scene before anyone is dispatched.
For the people doing this job — call handlers managing domestic abuse disclosures, mental health crises, and vulnerable callers on back-to-back shifts — that distinction matters more than any platform specification.
1 "From local to national: a new model for policing", Police Reform White Paper, GOV.UK, 26 January 2026. gov.uk/government/publications/from-local-to-national-a-new-model-for-policing
Case studies
Written-up examples from UK police forces, with named organisations and measurable outcomes.
Created dedicated Digital Public Contact Engagement Desks to route non-urgent reports online — shifting low-complexity demand away from telephony and freeing human operators for urgent and complex contacts. Not a platform replacement. A contact model redesign.
101 abandonment rate fell from 43% to 16% by September 2024. Average 999 wait time reduced to 6 seconds. 91% of 999 calls now answered within 10 seconds.
Deployed NEC's SmartContact platform integrating the THRIVE vulnerability framework directly into the call-handling interface — so operators assess risk at the point of contact, not after the call ends.
94.4% of 999 calls answered within 10 seconds. 93% of 101 calls answered within 40 seconds. Abandonment rate reduced to 0.2%. Verified by the PCC Accountability Board, late 2024.
Deployed GoodSAM's video triage and GPS location tool integrated into the control room — giving call handlers live eyes on a scene via the caller's phone before any officer is dispatched. Also deployed across Surrey, Sussex, Kent and BCH forces.
20% reduction in unnecessary officer deployments. High-risk missing persons located faster via live video feed direct to the control room.
Also worth reading
Further examples from the Proven Public database — not yet written up in full.
Note: the core contact management platform market in UK policing is dominated by a small number of large vendors. SME opportunity sits primarily in the triage, vulnerability assessment, and integration layer — as reflected in the case studies above.