The Learning the Lessons Committee is a multi-agency committee established to disseminate and promote learning across the police service. Its members are: ACPO, APA, Home Office, IPCC, HMIC and the NPIA. The Committee produces bulletins with articles containing lessons from investigations.

In the early hours one morning in January 2008, a teenage girl trying to catch a night bus to her boyfriend’s house was attacked at the bus stop. She was talking to him on her mobile phone at the time and, as he heard a voice say “Give me the bag, do you want to get hurt?”, she told him she was being robbed. He heard the voice say either “Kiss this” or “Kiss that” and then the line went dead.

When he dialled 999 the call was (in line with national policy) routed to the force for the area where he lived, not where the attack was happening. He told the call handler that his girlfriend was being mugged and that they were trying to rape her. While on the line to the boyfriend, the call handler

attracted the attention of a second call handler who made contact with the force local to the attack.

As the first call handler gathered further details, the second call handler read the screen and passed them to a call handler in the other force, a method that could result in delays and mistakes in

relaying information. The boyfriend passed on his girlfriend’s mobile number but the call handler missed off the last two digits when she passed this to the other force. The boyfriend was unsure of the exact location of his girlfriend and got the street name slightly wrong. He also gave an incorrect bus number.

The call handler graded the call for an immediate response.

Meanwhile, the boyfriend set off to drive there himself. The details were passed to eight patrol units in the area but because of difficulties in finding the right location, they were unable to find the girl, although she was still in the area. She had been raped by her attacker and asked a passer-by for help, borrowing a phone to call her boyfriend. As they met up, the police arrived and she reported the rape. Her attacker was later arrested and pleaded guilty.

Key questions – for officers/staff:

• As a call handler, do you know how important it is to take and relay accurate information?

Key questions – for policy makers/managers:

• Do you have an effective system for dealing with misrouted calls?

National issues:

• National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) needs to review the process for transferring 999 calls between forces

• Need for national review of whether the emergency operator (British Telecom) needs flexibility to direct calls anywhere within the UK

To read the full Learning Report, click on the link below: