Thank you for your request for information dated 20/07/2005 concerning
information about the implementation and use of Thames Valley Police
0845 number. 

Your request for information has now been considered and our response is
detailed below:

Q1.  I have applied the following exemption to this question:

Section 31 - Law Enforcement

For operational and emergency planning reasons it is inappropriate and
not in the public interest to release the "overlay numbers" into the
public domain. In certain situations, the presentation of these numbers
may well change giving rise to the potential for lost calls. Suffice it
to say that an alternative access number available from abroad is
actively being looked at and will appear on the Thames Valley Police
website in due course.

Q2 - Detailed below is an extract from Thames Valley Police Call
Handling and Control Room Strategy dated April 2000.

Access number
Unlike emergency calls, there is currently no national or Force wide
contact number for non-emergency calls. Customers find it difficult to
remember the number of their local police station, and being
increasingly mobile, often wish to contact the police from outside their
local area. In general, the customer's priority is that their enquiry is
handled appropriately without concern about the specific location of the
person handling their call.

The Home Office Call Handling Strategy Study suggests that a single
national number is required for non-emergency calls. As an interim step,
a number of forces have already adopted single force-wide numbers.

The customer's expectation of the service that will be received is
determined by the number dialled and the way that number has been
publicised. This needs to be taken into account if the customer's
expectations are to be met.

The public shall be provided with simple access to non-emergency
services regardless of their location, and without the need for specific
knowledge of the structure of the Force (e.g. area boundaries).


Q3. TVP receives no revenue/rebate from its 0845 number and in fact we
financially contribute to every incoming call in order to ensure the
caller only pays a local call charge. This was detailed in the business
case and sanctioned by the Chief Constables Management Team.

Q4. BT supplies our non geographic number.

Q5 - We, up until this point, have not been made aware of any problems
of access whilst abroad. However we will now look into this problem and
the best way to resolve it.  As stated in our response to question 1 an
alternative access number available from abroad is actively being looked
at and will appear on the Thames Valley Police website in due course.

Q6 - Prior to the introduction of the single number all customers of TVP
could use a range of non emergency local numbers at "local rate". The
single number was chosen so that the rate charged would not change for
calls from fixed line telephone not only in the Thames Valley force area
but extended this facility to anywhere in the country. This reflects the
advice in the paper quoted which states "for many public services 0845
is suitable (and also reduces hoax calls considerably)"   See also
answer to question 2.

Q7 - PITO was not consulted prior to the introduction of the 0845
number.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in
Thames Valley Police.

Quote:


Brilliant flannel, but I think it means "Thames Valley Police think people who dial the 01734 number expect an in-bred idiot on the other end, but people who dial 0845 expect someone smart."

I suspect this is the line the telcos feed them.

Quote:
I agree.

I noticed they have still got local rate and how it apparantly benefits callers even outside their local area!  I'd quote the three website address as I posted in your

COI Update

thread you (idb) started in geo chat, and even ask them to look at OfCOM's

Contact Us

webpage which clearly indicates that a geo number is cheapest option for most callers (except those on Light User scheme).

Taken from OfCOM's contact us website:-
Quote:

Acknowledgement of review shown below, with a target date of December 5. What on earth can be so complex that the review will take three months and possibly more to complete?! Ludicrous.

<<
I acknowledge receipt of your email dated 22nd August 2005 requesting
that Thames Valley Police review its response to your request for
information concerning Information about the implementation and use of
Thames Valley Police 0845 number. 

The review will be conducted in accordance to Thames Valley Police's
review procedure and every effort will be made to have a response to you
by the 5th December 2005, however if it becomes clear that the review
will not be completed by this date you will be contacted.

If you wish to discuss this matter prior to Thames Valley Police's
response please contact me.
>>

I today received an email from TVP in response to my FOI.  Nothing new from what idb has printed except they make a contribution of 0.4ppm.

I shall ask for an internal review with a view of taking it to the IC.

Quote:
Further to this, I have just emailed them with my request for an internal review.  This is what I wrote (in 2 parts):-

Part 1/2:

====================================
Thank you for your email dated today and the replies to my FOI questions.

Regarding my question 1 and your exemption, I hereby request an internal review with a view of taking this further to the information commissioner and also the home office and the Prime Minister (if needed).

In question 1, I asked for the geographical number that your 0845 8 505 505 (non-emergency contact number) points to (terminates at) and your exemption was on the basis, amongst other things, that it is not in the public interest to release this number to the public domain.

I totally disagree with this and would like to state that it is definitely in the interest of the public to have the geographical number for the reasons mentioned below:-

Calling an 0845 actually costs more than calling a local rate geographical number and calling from a public payphone or mobile can actually cost upto about 40ppm.  Can I remind you that in your reply to one of my questions you quoted the following from your Thames Valley Police Call Handling and Control Room Strategy dated April 2000:-

"Customers find it difficult to remember the number of their local police station, and being increasingly mobile, often wish to contact the police from outside their local area. In general, the customer's priority is that their enquiry is handled appropriately without concern about the specific location of the person handling their call."

Now from your own quote you admit that us public are increasingly mobile and often wish to contact you from outside our area.  I agree that you are correct in this assumption and being increasingly mobile if I or any other general public want to ring you from a payphone or mobile (mobiles are extremely popular these days) then you expect me and the general public to pay upto about 40ppm to call your 0845 number when it WOULD be significantly cheaper for us (and possibly free with inclusive minutes), and therefore in our interest, to call your geographical number?

Also from that same quote, you state that "customers find it difficult to remember the number of their local police station" but can I say not much has changed.  If I were to ring your switchboard on your geographical number or your 0845 number you would still transfer me to the police station or whichever department is more relevant for my specific problem/query.  Internal calls including those between different police stations do not cost any extra so it is of no benefit to us having an 0845 number in these circumstances.

You mention in your exemption that for operation and planning reasons it is not in our interest but if this is correct can I ask how you managed to survive on your geographical number upto when you changed over to an 0845 number if having an 0845 is so important for the operation and planning?  Why did you not choose an 0845 sooner as they've been in available since before I can remember?  Have you ever even experienced severe loss of call handling ability when using your geographical number that an 0845 would have prevented?

(continued.........)
============================

Quote:

Where? Can we have a link please?

So Ofcom says it is local rate, so it must be.

So when someone says "I wasn't me officer", do they take them at their word, or do the investigate the facts?

We brief them with the facts, and they don't want to know!!!

Point out Ofcom's own contact page. Why, therefore, does Ofcom itself show both numbers and point out that the geographical number will be cheapest for most people?

Having sent of my request for an internal review on 21st Sept, I received a reply back from this internal review on 23rd Sept as follows:-

Quote:
I notice they took a really long, hard look and fully investigated my internal review before still saying no.  Two days to look at a request for an internal review has to be a world record of somekind!

Needless to say I'm taking this to the IC and I'm now going to write to the Prime Minister at the disgrace that anyone out and about that witnesses something and wishes to report to the police (via non-emergency number) is expected to pay upto 40ppm from payphone/mobiles because they don't want people to know their geographical number.