Emergency call 'failures' highlighted
- Published
Police Scotland staff handle 2.6 million calls a year
Police failed to respond properly to at least 200 emergency calls in the past year, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives has claimed.
Ruth Davidson said the incidents included cases where officers were sent to the wrong town.
A suicidal caller was told to "hang up", while no officers were sent to help a couple who rang 999 when their front door was "being kicked in".
Ms Davidson challenged Nicola Sturgeon on the issue at Holyrood.
The first minister insisted significant improvements had been made to emergency call handling in recent months.
'Serious and unacceptable'
But she accepted that the cases raised by Ms Davidson were "serious and unacceptable".
The exchange at first minister's questions came after the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) found a number of failings in the way police dealt with a 999 call from a domestic abuse victim.
Elizabeth Bowe, 50, called for help on 17 September last year but Police Scotland took almost 90 minutes to respond.
When they did, they found her seriously injured in her St Andrews home, and she later died.
Her brother Charles Gordon, 52, was jailed for life in July at the High Court in Glasgow after being found guilty of strangling his sister.
Ms Davidson told Ms Sturgeon that the case was "not an isolated incident", and asked "how many more times will a call for help go unheeded before the situation in our emergency control rooms is sorted out?"
Charles Gordon was found guilty of murdering his sister Elizabeth Bowe
Ms Davidson said there were "200 incidents from the last year that we have uncovered" where police had failed to respond appropriately.
She said: "In one case, a suicidal man was told to hang up. In another two, separate call handlers failed to record a report of a dead body in a house.
"In another, a couple rang 999 to report their front door was being kicked in. They didn't get any help because, firstly, the wrong address was written down and, secondly, police officers weren't even dispatched."
Other examples highlighted by Ms Davidson included:
A woman threatened by her ex-partner who didn't get a response from police because they were sent to the wrong address.
A man threatened with a knife where police were sent to the right flat in the right street but in the wrong town.
A caller who rang as their mother and their niece were being assaulted and again police were sent to the wrong location.
The first minister expressed her "heartfelt thoughts and sympathies" to the family of Ms Bowe, and said that each of the cases cited by Ms Davidson was "serious and unacceptable".
But she told MSPs: "I do think it is important also to put the situation into context. Ruth Davidson cites 200 incidents - as I say, completely unacceptable - but Police Scotland handle 2.6 million calls every year."
Ruth Davidson challenged Nicola Sturgeon on the issue at Holyrood
She added: "I am very clear that one of the incidents of the type Ruth Davidson has cited here today is one too many and lessons must be learned from all of these incidents.
"But I also think we need to recognise the number of calls that are handled and use that as context, and also to recognise the significant improvements that have been made."
The first minister said that, following the murder of Ms Bowe, the police had rolled out risk and vulnerability training to more than 800 staff.
She continued: "This was a tragic and unacceptable case... but it is simply not the case to say that significant improvements are not being made and have not been made to call handling and it's important that lessons from cases like this continue to be learned."
Ms Sturgeon added: "It is also not just me or the justice secretary who are saying that significant improvements have been made - that is the view of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary."