In the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, an emergency control centre or emergency communications centre (ECC) is a building or room where control room operators receive incoming telephone calls from members of the public in need of assistance. Callers make initial contact through the
999 999 or triple nine most often refers to:
* 999 (emergency telephone number), a telephone number for the emergency services in several countries
* 999 (number), an integer
* AD 999, a year
* 999 BC, a year
Media
Books
* 999 (anthology), ''99 ...
emergency telephone service, where their calls are answered at an operator assistance centre (OAC). From here the telephone company's operator directs the call to the relevant ECC.
Emergency services using ECC
The single greatest use of United Kingdom ECCs is made by
police forces
The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citize ...
, but there are four principal emergency services which maintain full-time ECC provision, nationwide. These are the police, ambulance services, fire and rescue services, and the Coastguard. A number of additional emergency services make use of the ECC of one of the four full-time services; for example, mountain rescue are contacted through police ECCs, and the lifeboat service is contacted through Coastguard ECCs.
History
Types of centralised control have been in use since the beginning of emergency services in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales
* The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
, but the first to respond to the
999 999 or triple nine most often refers to:
* 999 (emergency telephone number), a telephone number for the emergency services in several countries
* 999 (number), an integer
* AD 999, a year
* 999 BC, a year
Media
Books
* 999 (anthology), ''99 ...
number was in 1937 in the London area. Prior to this time there were assorted basic means of communication with centralised control, including operations rooms with telephones, maps, direct lines to
police box
A police box is a public telephone kiosk or callbox for the use of members of the police, or for members of the public to contact the police. It was used in some countries, most widely in the United Kingdom throughout the 20th century from th ...
es, and radios. Over time as technology has advanced more equipment is used in dealing with calls. Today technology is used to pinpoint the location of the caller, advanced logging systems are used to record conversations and events, should they be needed as evidence, and live records are kept of the locations of all units on patrol to co-ordinate effective responses to tasks.
Operation
Control room operators usually work in teams on variable shift patterns. Emergency control centres are open twenty-four hours a day, all year round, and are usually busiest on Friday and Saturday nights. Being staffed twenty-four hours a day requires large numbers of staff, typically around 80 operators in an average size jurisdiction.
Cleveland Police
Cleveland Police is a territorial police force in England responsible for the policing the boroughs of Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland in North Yorkshire and Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham within North East England. T ...
are the only force in the UK that have a privately run ECC.
India
In India, Police Control Room(PCR) is a place or room where communications between different levels of police setup takes place. Police control room is also bridge between general public who inform or seek help from police by dialling number"100" or one hundred. It can be called as police helpline number in Bharat(India). Even though the number "100" is primarily meant for informing or help by police, common people of India use it for many purposes including help during disasters, traffic jams, counselling among others.
Most of
districts
A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...
in Bharat have a police control room. Normally police commissionerates also have separate police control room(pcr). There are police vehicles which patrol designated areas under police control room and are popularly known as PCR vans or PCR vehicles. These PCR vehicles have police personnel in them to assist people as quickly as possible. Some states of India have fancy names for PCR vehicles.
These days there are many helpline numbers for different purposes in India, but police helpline number"100" is most popular and easily remembered.
See also
*
999 (emergency telephone number)
999 is an official emergency telephone number in a number of countries which allows the caller to contact emergency services for emergency assistance. Countries and territories using the number include Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Cook Islands ...
*
Emergency telephone number
An emergency telephone number is a number that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. The emergency number differs from country to country; it is typically a three-digit number so that it can be easily remembered and ...
*
Police 101
101 is the police single non-emergency number (SNEN) in the United Kingdom (UK), which automatically connects the caller to their local police force, in a similar manner to the pre-existing 999 emergency number. The 101 service was created to ...
non-emergency number
References
Law enforcement in the United Kingdom
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