Sunshine Coast RCMP commander Staff Sgt. Poppy Hallam said RCMP and local fire chiefs met recently with E-Comm, the emergency dispatch service that handles Sunshine Coast calls, to discuss issues around how calls from the area are being handled.
Hallam made the comments during a quarterly update on police stats for Gibsons councillors on Oct. 15.
She said the main area of common concern with the fire departments is that police aren’t always being dispatched to serious accidents where there might be a criminal aspect.
“They’re going to be doing a review,” Hallam told councillors.
She also said problems with long hold times for people calling the non-emergency number are continuing and RCMP are working with E-Comm on that issue as well.
“We are still experiencing abnormally long waits [on the non-emergency line], even during the day when our office is open,” Hallam said.
E-Comm has acknowledged a system-wide issue with non-emergency call waits and said in media release earlier this month that “we’re working on new processes to enhance non-emergency call-answer service.”
Hallam said in the meantime local RCMP are trying to get the word out to the general public about the sorts of situations that people might not be aware warrant making a 911 call.
“Certain things can be a 911 call. If you believe a crime is about to be committed, if you see a suspicious vehicle or suspicious person and it’s night and you think they might be on somebody’s property and they might be committing an offence – that is a 911 call.”
E-Comm has more information about the difference between emergency and non-emergency calls at nonemergency.ca.
