Suffolk Police’s non-emergency response system Digi Desk celebrates first birthday after successful year helping the public

Suffolk Police’s non-emergency response system called Digi Desk is celebrating its first birthday following a successful year helping the public.

The Digital Public Contact Engagement Desk was introduced into the Contact & Control Room (CCR) in March 2024 to ensure a faster and more convenient service for those people not requiring an emergency response, but for those frustrated by the old office hours service.

The changes were made possible by a £1.2 million investment from Suffolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner’s Council Tax precept in 2023.

The Digi Desk is staffed every day between 7am and 10pm to help members of the public who find it easier to get in touch outside more traditional working hours.

The new focus on social media and the force’s website is working, with its team handling more than 11,000 interactions on the website since April 2024.

As of March 2025, 93 per cent of surveyed users would recommend the service to a friend or family or would use it again.

The team has taken part in more than 15,000 live chat interactions, which were typically answered by a staff member within an average of 11 seconds.

Assistant Chief Constable Eamonn Bridger said: “Technology is a vital component in how we communicate with the public but this is also about our highly skilled and trained people because we know how important it is to answer a call as quickly as possible.

“We are now more flexible, responsible and efficient – vital when demand has been growing across the county.”

“We also want to make ourselves more accessible for those who are hard of hearing or speech-impaired and extend our hours of availability on live chat - which automatically translates up to 100 languages - to improve our service to those where English is not their first language.”

The force’s long-term project to improve and transform the CCR is seeing significant improvements to help tackle demand as well.

Over the past 18 months, it has recruited additional call-takers, who are dual-trained to work in the dispatch teams that deploy officers to incidents, opened more online channels for people to report crime for non-emergency issues, and implemented the phasing in of the Right Care, Right Person approach.

It has also progressed other initiatives to alleviate the pressures call takers face, whilst embracing digital technology to ensure members of the public who need the police can promptly access help.

The number of 999 calls received by the CCR has increased by almost 30 per cent over the past three years, from an average of 8,645 per month in 2019 to an average of 11,141 per month in 2023.

In the year ending 30 September 2024, 91 per cent of emergency calls were answered within 10 seconds, with an average wait time of six seconds.

In the previous 12 months, the figure was 79 per cent.

Assistant Chief Constable Bridger said: “We have made huge strides in the CCR to modernise the service and make it more responsive to the needs of the public, and in particular, to victims, witnesses and everyone who needs our support or help.

“The changes we have introduced in the CCR across a variety of platforms using digital technology demonstrate how we are continuing to evolve, innovate and improve to reflect the changes in society and how the public wish us to communicate and engage with them.

“This is an ongoing journey of transformation and I am grateful for the public’s support as we continue to improve, as well as for the hard work of our dedicated control room staff.”