A strategy designed to reduce the number of service calls impacting front-line officers at the Waterloo Regional Police Service continues to make strides.
According to the latest report on call reduction strategies presented during Wednesday's police board meeting, in the third quarter of 2022, front-line call reduction initiatives resulted in a total of 8,451 incidents being diverted from front-line patrol response.
Incidents handled by an alternative service delivery option increased by 9.1 per cent from the same period in 2021.
Year to date, 24,725 incidents have been diverted from front-line patrol response compared to 20,887 incidents during the first three quarters of 2021 resulting in an increased diversion rate of 18.4 per cent.
WRPS says that alternative police service delivery models improve customer service while allowing patrol officers to focus on providing essential policing services.
Some of the initiatives launched in 2019 to reduce the burden on front-line officers included the addition of a texting app that allows the dispatch team to communicate with dropped or silent 911 calls.
If a 911 call is dropped or is silent, an automated text message is sent to the caller indicating they had made a call to 911. It asks the individual to call back, letting dispatchers know if the call was intentional or accidental.
In the first year of implementation, more than 7,500 dropped or silent 911 calls were able to be cancelled using the texting app.
Police also partnered with Waterloo Region Accident Support Services Ltd. in 2019 in an effort to reduce the number of collisions patrol officers respond to.
That year, a total of 11,655 collisions were handled by Waterloo Region Accident Support Services Ltd at the Collision Reporting Centre.
Another initiative called the Front-line Support Unit (FSU) investigates calls that are not in progress, do not involve an immediate risk to public safety, or calls where no suspect information is obtainable.
In the third quarter of this year, a number of additional call types were handled by the FSU and WRPS anticipates that a minimum of an additional 2,200 incidents per year will be handled by an alternative service delivery.
