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New arrivals will bring local knowledge to Highlands policing





New resolution team assistants will be based at Highlands police headquarters in Inverness.
New resolution team assistants will be based at Highlands police headquarters in Inverness.

Fifteen new posts have been created in the Highlands to make sure every call to the 999 service gets the right response.

The force has said the arrival of the 'resolution team assistants' further enhances the development of call handling services for Police Scotland.

They will support a specialist team of officers and staff already working in the resolution department based at Old Perth Road headquarters in Inverness.

The team has been in place since last October, helping with 101 and 999 services and bringing their enhanced local knowledge and experience of policing urban, remote and island communities to the national Contact Command and Control service.

The public still contacts Police Scotland via 999, 101 or at their local police station, however, police chiefs have said trained officers and staff – who are the first point of contact – 'make an enhanced assessment of threat, harm, risk and vulnerability to ensure the matter is correctly prioritised'.

They can provide advice and resolve suitable enquiries from the public over the telephone, by face-to-face appointment where appropriate in certain areas or via video link.

Assistant Chief Constable John Hawkins said: “Police Scotland remains absolutely committed to decentralising its workforce and ensuring national resources are distributed around the country.

"The establishment of the Inverness Resolution Team has been a major investment in services in the North and a significant milestone in the ongoing development of call handling services for Scotland.

“The creation of 15 new posts is a welcome addition to the specialist team already in place, who have been playing a vital role in supporting and protecting members of the public at this challenging time.”

Highland Council’s strategic lead for the police and fire services has welcomed the force’s announcement.

Councillor Matthew Reiss said: “We were delighted in October last year to welcome 25 new jobs in Inverness with the creation of a specialist call handling service team and these 15 additional new posts based in the Highlands are great news.

“These high-quality service sector police jobs are a welcome boost to our community especially when we are seeing increasing unemployment.

"Local knowledge and experience of policing urban, remote and island communities is also very important.

"We were promised that jobs would be decentralised to remoter areas out with the Central Belt and I think this is what decentralisation is all about.

"This shows that Police Scotland have listened and still are.

"The Chief Constable told us he would deliver tangible results and now we are pleased to see this being delivered.

"This pandemic has demonstrated that people can perform all kinds of vital work remotely from every corner of the land, provided there is adequate connectivity and we hope to see more jobs like this coming our way.

"It is indeed good news for the North.”


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