101 Must Stay

Written by Jenny Randerson AM and published in Cardiff Post on Thu 21st Jun 2007

Around 10 million 999 calls were made to the police in 2004, 70% of these were not for genuine emergencies. . The levels of calls were however understandable when local police numbers are difficult to remember and the police are often too busy to deal immediately with more minor issues. Many people call 999 because they don't know what else to do. We are lucky in Cardiff to have the excellent Connect 2 Cardiff Service to deal with a lot of the problems but other areas are not so lucky.

Cardiff was one of the areas chosen as an area to trial the 101 scheme last year, jointly funded by the Home Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government. Having an easy to remember number for important but not urgent issues in Cardiff has been a brilliant innovation. Issues that were previously unreported because people didn't want to bother the Police are now being tackled. There are now 40% less non emergency calls put to 999. The scheme has been having direct benefits on people's quality of life, for example over 100 illegal motorbikes which blight some communities have been seized. The service is also freeing up officers for extra community duties.

When I visited the 101 centre in Cardiff I was impressed by how professional the team were and how police advice was constantly on hand. I was also impressed by how the data collected was being used to predict and prevent low level crime. I listened as dozens of people were reassured and their problem set on the road to being solved.

The scheme has been massively successful with obvious knock on benefits on the emergency services. I am unaware of any negative sentiment towards it and I just hope that rumours of it not being rolled out across all of Wales are unfounded. The Police love 101, The Council loves 101 and the people of Cardiff love 101. Jenny Willott MP and I will continue to put pressure on the Government to retain the service.