D0503 Procedure - Command and Control of Incidents

Number: D 0503
Date Published: 23 October 2025
Version 22 – October 2025

1.0 Summary of Changes

• Section 3.7.2 – Paragraph added
• Section 3.8 & 9.0 - Link to Abandoned 999 Flowchart updated

2.0 What this Procedure is about

This procedure will ensure Essex Police is committed to providing a victim focused approach to incident management.

Contact Management Command within Essex Police has responsibility for managing initial contact with the organisation and the subsequent organisational response.

The procedure outlines how Contact Management Command undertakes the command and control of incidents in line with the overarching vision of the National Contact Management Strategy to:

“manage all contact in a way that is nationally consistent and that appropriately meets the needs of the individual. Delivering a service that is intelligent, personalized, reassuring and effective at the earliest point of contact”.

The vision applies to all contact channels and will deliver contact management services which:

• are designed and deliver appropriate assistance to members of the public;
• prioritise those at greatest risk of harm;
• effectively use people and technology across an appropriate range of communication channels;
• achieve early resolution of calls for service, deploying frontline policing resources where necessary;
• ensure that we protect the public and increase confidence in policing.

This procedure will detail how Essex Police will assess Threat, Harm, Risk and Vulnerability in order to prioritise our response to incidents based on a number of fundamental principles:

• Contact where there is a real and immediate risk to life will be prioritised in all cases;
• Contact will, where appropriate, be resolved at the earliest point of contact, without deploying officers or staff;
• Some contact will not be attended and where appropriate may not be investigated;
• Strategic decisions on attendance and investigation policies will be informed by the resources available to meet demand;
• Vulnerability will be considered when prioritising demand;
• Relationships with partners should support the most suitable response to contact, every time.

The procedure also details the different response grades Essex Police uses to effectively manage our response to incidents.

This procedure ensures that Essex Police complies with:

• the National Contact Management Strategy;
• the National Call Handling Standards (NCHS) (ACPO 2012);
• the National Standard for Incident Recording (NSIR);
• National Crime Recording Standards (NCRS).

Compliance with this policy and any linked procedures is mandatory.

3.0 Detail the Procedure

3.1 General Principles

Contact Management Command is responsible for emergency and non-emergencycontacts received by Essex Police.

The Contact and Control Centres have the responsibility for the management of all incidents that have a command and control function, for the purposes of this document that includes allocation and management of on-going incidents.

The 999 emergency system will remain the preferred means to contact police in an emergency and misuse of that system should be robustly challenged.

All emergency calls received by Essex Police will be answered by the Contact Centre.

Misuse of the 999 emergency service is challenged in a way that is nationally consistent with a focus on educating the public to utilise correct contact channels.

Non-emergency callers into the HQ Switchboard are initially presented with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that provides a number of options to resolve the contact, including online services via the national Single Online Home Service (SOH) and the Essex Police Live Chat Service (this procedure will be continually reviewed to account for planned enhancements and developments to these and other channel choices as they become available).

The IVR message can be changed at short notice to provide alternative information in response to periods of varying demand. This message is subject to continual review.

Non-emergency calls presented to Switchboard will be triaged by the Switchboard staff and transferred predominately to the Contact Centre for details to be recorded or appropriate advice given.

The Contact Centre is responsible for recording and quality assuring crimes that are reported to Essex Police.

All contacts to Essex Police are dealt with in accordance with the National Crime Recording Standards (NCRS), the National Standard for Incident Recording (NSIR), Home Office Counting Rules (HOCR) and adherence to local policy, processes and procedures.

3.1.1 Use of STORM Command and Control System

Essex Police uses STORM as the Command and Control System to appropriately record and manage any incidents requiring a police response.

STORM is not to be used as an appointment diary or occurrence management system.

If the matter is a non-urgent crime or does not require a police response it will be recorded directly onto the ATHENA recording system as appropriate and necessary (Crime, Non Crime or PIR). The only exception to this is ASB in line with the relevant policy.

Only Contact Management Command staff will create, close, re-open or re-grade a STORM incident.

STORM utilises a series of “tags” to indicate additional actions or attention by other teams.

Only staff within Contact Management Command can add or remove such tags, with the exception of the Force Duty Officer (FDO) tag or other team authorised by CMC.

Once an incident has been attended and recorded (crime / non crime where appropriate) management of any further investigation/ action will be via ATHENA and any STORM incident appropriately closed.

Only staff within Contact Management Command can re-open a closed incident.

Control Centre staff utilise technology such as Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVLS) and mapping to get real-time information on the availability of resources, enabling effective and efficient deployment of police resources to incidents.

3.2 Roles and Responsibilities

The National Contact Management Strategy (NCMS) recommends that all staff engaged in contact management are appropriately trained in specific areas that is in accord with the National College of Policing National Contact Management Programme (NCMP) and the Contact Management National Policing Curriculum
(CMNPC).

These include:

• identification of threat, harm and risk;
• customer and community focused service delivery;
• prioritisation of demands;
• provision of safeguarding, crime prevention and sign-posting advice;
• decision making;
• appropriate early resolution of contact (for a variety of types of contact);
• recording of contacts and crime.

The Contact Management Command Coordination and Performance Unit (CPU) is tasked with ensuring continuous professional development and training that meets the NCMP standards.

Within Essex, the following have responsibility for public contact and/or the command and control of incidents generated by that contact:

• Control Centre Switchboard Telephonists
  
  • The Switchboard is the first point of contact for any non-urgent telephone contact to Essex Police (using 101);
  • Switchboard staff conduct an initial risk assessment on information provided by the caller using the THRIVE model detailed below and transfer calls to the Contact Centre or other internal departments/ staff based on this assessment;
  • Calls will be transferred on an internal emergency line to the Contact Centre where there are significant threat, harm or risk factors.
• Contact Centre Handlers
  
  • The majority of non-urgent calls into Essex Police will be handled by the Contact Centre;
  • Each call is assessed on an individual basis;
  • Contact Handlers conduct risk assessments based on THRIVE principles;
  • Contact Handlers are responsible for obtaining sufficient information to determine the appropriate response grade for a STORM incident;
  • Contact Handlers record their THRIVE assessment and rationale on STORM.
    The activity of Contact Handlers is focussed to ensure that Essex Police are able to assess threats made to harm the public at first point of call. To support this a new work flow has been implemented to enable contact handlers to either:
    1) Send to Control for allocation of a police resource (specific threats being made/in progress)
    2) Record an incident that details a crime committed (specific threats made)
    3) Record a Police Information Report [PIR] where non-specific threats have been made.
• Geographical Contact Officer (GCO)
  • GCO s provide face-to-face contact for members at the public at Essex Police stations;
  • Their responsibilities are similar to those of a Contact Handler listed above;
  • GCOs can create, close, re-open, tag or de-tag STORM incidents;
  • GCOs provide resilience to Contact Centre contact handling capabilities and administrative functions.
• Control Centre Control Staff
  • Controllers manage the Command and Control function for a specific geographic area(s);
  • They are responsible for the deploying police resources to incidents in accordance with Threat, Harm and Risk (THR) factors identified via continual risk assessment using the National Decision Model (NDM);
  • They are responsible for ensuring resources are allocated within a target time set for each response grade.
• Controller Back-Up
  • The Controller Back-Up is responsible for supporting the controller;
  • The Back Up is responsible for accurate updating of incidents, contacting other teams, departments and contacting other agencies/ members of the public as appropriate;
  • They are responsible for reviewing any unallocated incident and supporting the Controller in identifying resources to be allocated;
  • They will undertake dispatcher responsibilities as required.
• Contact Centre Supervisor (Contact Handling)
  • Is responsible for ensuring contact handling is managed effectively and with a victim focus in line with organisational key performance indicators;
  • Is responsible for ensuring sufficient staffing is maintained to maintain public service by means of continuous performance, management and mitigation via established trigger plans;
  • Conducts continual dip sampling of contact handling and THRIVE standards;
  • Assesses all abandoned/silent 999 calls for THR;
  • Undertakes subscriber checks under the golden hour principles;
  • Undertakes any other tasking as directed by the Contact Centre Manager, Force Incident Managers (FIM), Contact Management Command Team or FDO.
• Control Centre (Supervisor)
  • Provide first line supervisory support and oversight to the control function for one (or more) geographic policing areas;
  • Is responsible for continually monitoring open STORM incidents requiring resource allocation to ensure key performance indicators are met with a victim focus allocation of resources within targets;
  • Reviews open grade 1-3 incidents for THR and escalation to FIM or FDO etc. as appropriate;
  • Supports FIM(s) with risk assessments and deployment of specialist resources (NPAS, Firearms, Taser, Pursuits etc.);
  • Is responsible for ensuring sufficient staffing is maintained to maintain public service by means of continuous performance management and mitigation via established trigger plans;
  • Responsible for liaison with LPT Sergeants, FIM or the Force Duty Officer (FDO);
  • Ensuring / Supporting the resulting and disposing of incidents in line with NSIR principles.
• Contact Centre Inspector
  • Is responsible for the overall management and performance of the contact centre especially the GOS for 999 and 101 calls.
  • Has responsibility for performance management within the Control Centre to ensure public service is maintained by means of continuous performance management and mitigation via established trigger plans.
  • Will also cover the Role of FIM when required.
• Force Incident Manager (FIM)
  • Is responsible for the overall management of critical incidents, particularly the initial Tactical Firearms Commander (iTFC) and Pursuit Manager functions;
  • Has oversight of resource allocation force-wide, particularly Emergency and Priority incidents (see below) via liaison with local inspectors/ sergeants/DOs re resource availability/ redirection;
  • Has responsibility for performance management within the Control Centre to ensure public service is maintained by means of continuous performance management and mitigation via established trigger plans.
• Command Duty Officer/ Force Duty Officer (FDO)
  • The senior officer on duty with overall responsibility for managing performance and/ or incidents.

To ensure effective command and control of incidents, control functions are supported by and liaise closely with:

• LPA (LPT) Sergeant
  
  • Responsible for the supervision of resources at a local level;
  • They will ensure all local staff are booked on to STORM with the correct status and applicable tags;
  • They will ensure/maximise the availability of resources under their command to enable effective command and control of incidents by the Control Centre.
  • They will support the effective management of incident updates and resolution when attended, or where no deployment is required.
• LPA (LPT) Inspector
  
  • The operational manager of the response to incidents within their geographical area;
  • They support the the Control Centre functions by ensuring resources respond to incidents in accordance with this procedure;
  • They will support the effective management of incident updates and resolution when attended, or where no deployment is required.
• NCRS Support and Review Team (NSRT)
  
  • Responsible for supporting the management of NSIR, NCRS and HOCR compliance of incidents and crimes recorded by the Force, under the direction of the Force Crime & Incident Registrar;
  • Undertake daily audits of closed incidents for Crime Recording Accuracy, with a focus on High Harm, Vulnerability and ASB;
  • Support the compliance of force policy and procedure relating to the above.

3.3 Recording an Incident

The National Standards of Incident Recording (NSIR 2011) define an incident as:

“a single distinct event or occurrence which disturbs an individual’s, groups or community’s quality of life or causes them concern”.

The NSIR state an incident should be recorded when:

“something specific has happened, is happening or may happen, causing someone to contact the Police.”

In these circumstances an incident will always be recorded regardless of whether or not a deployment is required.

However, the NSIR also state that:

“appropriate incident assessment and recording are a key part of an effective contact management process helping to identify repeat victims, vulnerable individuals and communities along with recurring environmental issues.”

This means not every call to Essex Police will require a Command and Control response and will not therefore require the creation of a STORM incident.

If the report clearly refers to a crime that does not require the attendance of a police resource, the incident will be recorded on ATHENA.

Additionally, if the call relates to an enquiry, an incident will not automatically be created.

The NSIR define an enquiry as:

“a request from a caller:

• for information;
• for further contact by a member of the Police;
• for further contact or action by another agency”

And further state:

“There is no requirement to record full details of an incident which is being dealt with solely by another agency as the responsibility for making a record will lie with that agency. However, if the report is received in the first instance by the police it should be risk assessed and full details obtained so that sufficient details can be passed to the relevant agency to allow them to respond appropriately. Even if the matter is not something which falls within the remit of the police, staff should consider the potential dangers of signposting a caller to another agency without taking full details.”

3.4 Assessing the Risk

Effective risk management requires the accurate identification, assessment and prioritisation of risks. It should lead to the appropriate use of resources to minimise, monitor and control the probability and/or impact of the incident.

Essex Police is committed to ensuring that all incidents reported to Essex Police are risk assessed at the earliest opportunity in line with NSIR guidelines.

Essex Police Contact Handlers use the National Decision Model (NDM) to obtain and assess information to determine the appropriate response to the matter reported.

THRIVE is a risk assessment tool that considers 6 factors to assist in identifying the appropriate response grade which are based on the circumstances of the incident and needs of the caller (not all factors will be applicable to all circumstances):

1. Threat:

• This is the identification of whom or what is subject to any threat and what is the threat;
• The threat can be towards a person(s), property, public safety, community cohesion, service reputation of Essex Police, or nothing.

2. Harm:

• This is an assessment of the threat, which, if carried out, what would be the level of harm caused;
• Person – what is the perceived/potential or level of injury?;
• Property – what could be the extent of the damage?
• Force reputation – significant negative impact, no impact
• Community Impact – Severe reduction in community confidence, potential for disorder, minimal or no impact

3. Risk:

• This is the probability of the threat being carried out.
• None, Minimal/unlikely, high/very likely
• A rationale should be provided

4. Investigation:

• Is there a need for an investigation and if so what level of investigation is proportionate?;
• Do police need to physically attend the scene?;
• Can the investigation be completed by the Investigation and Assessment Centre?;
• If this is not a Police matter, has the caller been referred to the correct agency to deal?

5. Victims & Vulnerability:

• Vulnerability is defined as: “a person is vulnerable if, as a result of their situation or circumstances, they are unable to take care or protect themselves, or others from harm or exploitation”;
• A person may be vulnerable due to them being a Victim of crime, or due to their personal situation or may be vulnerable due to their current circumstances, at the time of the incident;
• When assessing vulnerability, the following factors may indicate someone is vulnerable:
  
  • Family Circumstances;
  • Personal Circumstances;
  • Health & Disability;
  • Equality and Diversity;
  • Economic Circumstances;
  • Repeat Victimisation.

Where children are involved staff will ensure that the Voice of the Child is considered through the application of the AWARE principles, and where appropriate reminders provided to attending units.

6. Engagement:

• REFUSE – Not a legitimate Police call for service
• REFER – Call is better suited for another agency
• RESOLVE – Dealing with issues at the first point of contact
• RESOURCE – Deploying the appropriate team to service calls, which do not require attendance or investigation.
• REASSURANCE – Crime prevention advice/Neighbourhood Watch/SMS links

7. PP (Policy and Procedure):

Link to Policy where possible

8. Options:

DV – attend, diary appointment, RVR?

9. AR (Action & Review):

What has been done since creating this incident?

The Contact Handler will determine the incident grading based on their knowledge, experience and application of the NDM and THRIVE assessment.

All incidents will be continually assessed throughout the lifecycle of the incident to ensure our response remains appropriate.

The response grading of the incident and the subsequent allocation of incidents will be based on the information gathered from the caller and the subsequent THRIVE assessment at the time.

Any specific threat made by the caller will be recorded verbatim on STORM and/or Athena and/or PNC (advice to be sought from an Contact or Control Supervisor).

Where there is a change in circumstances or information which is likely to alter the risk assessment grading and the incident is one which is not the primary responsibility of police, it is incumbent on the attending officers (or Contact or Control Centre staff if no deployment occurs) to ensure the change in circumstances/risk assessment is passed
to the relevant authority, to allow them to revise their assessment and handling of the matter.

3.5 Allocating a Response Grading

Incidents will be prioritised based on the threat, harm, risk and vulnerability as per section 3.4 Assessing the Risk of this document. Every incident recorded by Essex Police will be given one of six response gradings;

• Emergency Response (either grade 1 – urban or grade 2 – rural);
• Priority Response (grade 3);
• Routine Response (grade 4);
• Resolution Without Deployment (grade 5);
• Appointment (grade 6).

Essex police are committed to effectively dealing with High Harm crime and incidents, the allocation and response to these crime types will be in line with the aforementioned THRIVE and NDM assessment and the national gradings as set out within this section.

Essex police are committed to attending 100% of such incidents, with 90% being within the allocated response grading. Essex police are also committed to ensuring all Residential Burglary incidents will be treated as a Priority as a minimum grading.

3.5.1 Emergency Response (Grade 1 – urban / Grade 2 – rural)

An incident reported to Essex Police (by any means/route) will be graded as an emergency response if the matter being reported is currently taking place and in which there is, or likely to be a risk of:

• Danger to life;
• Use of or immediate threat or use of violence;
• Serious injury to a person;
• Serious damage to property;

Where an incident is required to be transferred to the fire or ambulance services to manage one of the identified above risks where no obvious need for police exists, but that agency’s response time exceeds the police emergency response time (20 minutes), a police resource unit will be allocated on an emergency response to assess and mitigate the risk until the appropriate emergency service attends.

However this will only be in the confined circumstances where an Article 2 Right to Life issue is present and in line with the right care right person policy.

Where the incident being reported relates to a crime, it will be dealt with as an emergency if:

• The crime is, or is likely to be serious, and is in progress;
• An offender has just been disturbed at the scene;
• An offender has been detained and poses, or is likely to pose, a risk to other people.

Where the incident being reported relates to a traffic collision, it will be dealt with as an emergency if;

• It involves or is likely to involve serious personal injury;
• The strategic road network (SRN) is blocked, or there is a dangerous or excessive build-up of traffic, or there is a serious obstruction.

Where the above circumstances do not apply, an incident will still be graded as an emergency response if;

• The circumstances are such that the Contact Handler has strong and objective reasons for believing that the incident should be classified as an emergency response;
• Essex Police deployment criteria requires an emergency response;
• A report of an intruder alarm is received from a recognised, Police approved Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC), and are able to provide the Police Contact Handler with the Unique Reference Number (URN).

Any incident graded as an emergency response must be saved and transferred to the Control Centre as soon as sufficient detail has been obtained. This will facilitate the allocation of an appropriate resource. STORM will auto transfer emergency graded incidents to Control at the point of saving to support allocation and attendance in the
required time.

Allocation of a resource must be achieved by Control within 3 minutes of the incident being saved and transferred. If allocation is not achieved within 3 minutes, it must be escalated to the Control Supervisor. STORM already auto reminds when allocation and attendance times are likely to be breached. Where a unit has not arrived within 10
minutes of the incident being saved, it must be escalated to the Control Supervisor, LPA Sergeant and FIM to review and ensure effective management and attendance can be achieved.

When an emergency response is required, in urban areas Essex Police will aim to attend within 15 minutes, and in rural areas, within 20 minutes.

3.5.2 Non-Emergency Incident

An incident will be classified as non-emergency if it does not meet the emergency criteria outlined above.

Any incident graded as a non-emergency means that the Essex Police’s response may not be immediate, and could encompass a range of different solutions, some of which do not require the attendance of an officer.

3.5.3 Priority Response (Grade 3)

An incident will be graded as a priority response if the Contact Handler assesses that there is a degree of importance or urgency associated with the initial police action, but that an emergency response is not required.

A priority response may be appropriate where;

• There is a genuine concern for somebody’s safety;
• An offender has been detained, but poses no risk to others;
• A witness or other key evidence is likely to be lost;
• A person involved is vulnerable or a repeat victim
• A hate crime is reported;
• Essex Police has pre-determined this incident type to be a priority (e.g. Dwelling Burglary).

When a priority response is required Essex Police will aim to attend as soon as possible, but in any case, within 1 hour of the incident being saved. The caller must be informed of the likely response time and any subsequent changes to that response time for whatever reason (changes will invariably be communicated via the Control back up or Supervisor). STORM will auto transfer priority graded incidents to Control at the point of saving to support allocation and attendance in the required time.

Allocation of a resource should be achieved by Control as soon as possible and within 30 minutes of the incident being saved and transferred. If allocation is not achieved within 30 minutes, it must be escalated to the Control Supervisor. STORM already auto reminds when allocation and attendance times are likely to be breached. Where a unit has not attend within 45 minutes of the incident being saved, it must be escalated to the Control Supervisor and/or FIM to review and ensure effective management and attendance can be achieved.

3.5.4 Routine Response (Grade 4)

Where an incident does not require an emergency or priority response but there are still proportionate lines of enquiry, and these enquiries cannot be completed other than by the physical attendance of an Officer or Resource.

A routine response may be appropriate where:

• Attendance is required at a sudden death (that does not qualify for a higher grading);
• Reports of a missing person (that does not qualify for a higher grading).

When a routine response is required Essex Police will aim to arrive on scene as soon soon as possible, but within any case 48 hours of the incident being saved.

The Contact Handler must inform the caller of the likely response time and any subsequent changes to that response time for whatever reason (changes will invariably be communicated via the Control back up or Supervisor).

Where a unit has not arrived within 24 hours of the incident being saved, this should be escalated to the LPA Sergeant to review and ensure effective management and attendance can be achieved. CCC will continue to support with proactive allocation where appropriate.

3.5.5 Resolution without Deployment (Grade 5)

This grade is in relation to a deployment created on STORM that came in via a 999 or 101 call but needs no attendance and can be managed in its entirety by the Contact Centre. The non-urgent crime reported to Essex Police can be allocated to an officer to investigate using ATHENA in line with B 0602 Procedure – Investigation of Crime.

Any non-urgent call (101) reporting a matter of crime should be completed via the Contact Centre where it can be inputted directly onto ATHENA and allocated to an officer (if required under the Crime Triage process) within 24hrs.

The Resolution without Deployment grading may be appropriate where:

• The matter can be resolved during the initial call phase;
• The matter can be resolved during a follow up telephone call, and there is no requirement for deployment of a resource;
• An intelligence report needs to be submitted;
• Circulation of ANPR activations that are assessed as non-urgent;
• Once placed onto ATHENA, officers can be allocated to investigate, as there are no time or safety critical factors.

3.5.6 Appointment (Grade 6)

Where an incident does not require an emergency or priority response, but attendance is required, and any such attendance is NOT time critical a mutually agreed time and date will be arranged between the caller and the Essex Police Contact Handler. This will be agreed at the time of the initial call. All appointments will be booked through
the Essex Police appointment system.

An appointment grading will be used when vulnerability has been identified through a THRIVE assessment (as per section 3.4 Assessing the Risk). This will not ordinarily include the 14 strands of Public Protection.

Incidents that are graded as suitable for appointments can be dealt with by the Contact Centre for input onto ATHENA, at which point the incident will then be closed and the investigation managed via ATHENA B 0602 Procedure – Investigation of Crime.

The ATHENA record will be updated with details of the appointment.

Unattended appointments will not be re-booked by Contact Management staff, regardless of if the appointment was kept (by either the Police or the victim fails to attend). The responsibility will fall to the officer that was performing the Demand Car duties for that day to make contact with the victim and organise attendance or book a new appointment. If the officer is unable to re-arrange this themselves due to duty changes this will be managed through their Sergeant.

3.6 Incident Re-grading

Any incident can be re-graded in light of new information or a change in circumstances.

Only Contact Management Command staff can re-grade an incident.

If an incident is re-graded it is essential that:

• The caller or victim must be advised of the change and the likely impact;
• The incident must be updated with the rationale as to why the grading has changed;
• A revised THRIVE assessment must be recorded on the STORM incident (unless relating to an emergency response as per 3.6.2 below).

3.6.1 Downgrading an Incident

Only Contact Management staff can downgrade an incident.

This must be ratified by an Contact or Control Supervisor.

This must be clearly recorded on the incident.

An incident cannot be downgraded due to lack of resources.

Incidents will never be downgraded as a result of no deployable resource.

An incident can only be downgraded due to:

• Further information provided by the victim or caller;
• A fundamental change in circumstances;
• Receipt of intelligence or information which reduces the threat to the victim;
• If the Dispatcher determines an inappropriate was applied at the time the incident was created (as per 3.4, above).

If the call relates to a domestic abuse incident and the caller ends the call prematurely, incidents will not be downgraded until contact has been reestablished.

3.6.2 Upgrading an Incident

Only Contact Management staff can upgrade an incident.

This must be based on further information, intelligence or a change in circumstances.

If upgrading to an emergency response, a rationale must be recorded as soon practicable.

If a unit has been dispatched by the time the incident is upgraded the responding unit must be notified of the upgrade.

3.7 Incident Management

As stated in 3.1 above, the Control Centre has sole responsibility for the management of all incidents that have a command and control function.

For the purposes of this document that includes allocation and management of ongoing incidents.

Any specific threat made by a caller must be recorded verbatim on STORM and/or Athena and/or PNC (advice to be sought from an Contact Supervisor).

Control will adopt and maintain a “Task not Ask” ethos in unit identification and allocation as part of effective Command and Control. The most appropriate available unit will be allocated in the first instance, followed by the allocation of any available unit to ensure that incidents are effectively dealt with, Victims safeguarded, Offenders
pursued and Public reassurance maintained. This will align with the most recent version of Op Clarity.

Local Policing Areas (LPAs) and specialist Commands/Departments will support the management of STORM by ensuring the availability and correct status update of units under their control, and supporting the allocation of units in line with the above ethos and their areas of responsibility. Where the allocation of units to incidents which do not
sit within their usual area of responsibility is needed (or redirection from other planned operational policing commitments), this should be limited where possible to attendance to outstanding incidents graded as emergency or priority attendance (Grade 1-3). This is due to needing to ensuring that the highest threat/risk/harm matters are dealt with, whilst balanced with wider policing responsibilities and demands.

They will also support incident management through managers and supervisors owning responsibility for ensuring that units update incidents fully on attendance or before going off duty. This will include ensuring NCRS Update Required and Officer Update Required categorised incidents are effectively dealt with and resolved, and that matters not requiring command and control deployment of units are dealt with effectively and appropriately, removing them from STORM for management by other means as soon as possible .

These will be reviewed by the relevant Supervisor from the team who will be responsible for obtaining any update as required for the incident to be closed, including those resulted, where the incident has been reviewed by the NSRT and tagged as pending a further update to ensure NSIR/NCRS/HOCR compliance.

The local supervisor is responsible for resulting these incidents. The local Inspector has overall responsibility for compliance.

The resulting of incidents must be compliant with National Crime Recording Standards (NCRS).

Where there is a delay in an incident being resolved and closed in line with the response grading or within any other reasonable period of time, an incident action plan (IAP) should be recorded in order to clearly set out the required actions and expectation of what is required in order to positively and effectively resolve and conclude the incident. Such incident action plans (IAPs) should usually be provided by an experienced controller, control supervisor, local Sgt or Insp, however can also be provided by those with specialist knowledge related to the incident or via Local
Command/Duty Officer.

3.7.1 Boundary Issues

Essex Police will be responsible for managing incidents which fall within the Essex Police Districts (EPD). Where an incident is reported which sits on or near to the boundary of the EPD and another Force area (usually arising on Fast roads, such as M25/A12/M11 etc), it is imperative that clarity and confirmation of the location is sought to ensure the correct Force ownership and allocation of resources to it.

Where there is a lack of such clarity, misunderstanding or disagreement on the location of the incident/boundary, and there is a clear risk of serious harm/safety in line with Art.2 HRA, Essex Police will retain responsibility for attendance to reported incidents in order to mitigate such risks and until clarity of location and ownership is confirmed. The bordering Force should be notified by CCC of the incident close to the border and recorded on STORM of their awareness.

3.7.2 Escalation Process

As agreed at contact management programme and performance board controllers act with the delegated authority of the CH/SUPT in charge of contact management. They are able to allocate any officer from any command in line with Op Clarity.

Where there is a likelihood that attendance to an incident in line with the response grading will not be met (whether through unit unavailability, distance or being delayed etc), this must be brought to the attention of the relevant local supervisor, as well as the Control Supervisor for that area (or another if not available) at the earliest opportunity.

The local supervisor shall take responsibility and make all reasonable efforts to ensure a suitable unit is identified to attend in line with the grading, and if not possible, escalate further to their line manager (Inspector) to consider appropriate deployment of resources, whether from their own team or from others within the LPA.

If attendance cannot be resolved locally, the Control supervisor must be advised, and consideration given to utilising resources from outside the LPA/Command to meet the attendance timescale. If allocation of a unit is still not resolved, or challenged at a supervisory level, the Control supervisor will escalate this to the FIM in the first instance, and the local area Duty Officer or FDO for attention and oversight and direction.

All incidents should be updated confirming that escalation has commenced in line with this procedure whilst efforts continue to successfully resource the incident.

3.8 Abandoned/Silent 999 Call Process

This process has been mapped onto a flow chart located here.

This will help guide a contact handler through the process and the necessary escalation points.

Where a call is presented by the BT Operator as abandoned or silent, the Contact Handler will record an incident.

If there is sufficient information provided to police to dispatch a resource either through Caller Location Information (CLI), Advanced Mobile Location (AML) data, or via the BT recording of the caller requesting police with a location, then the STORM location will be identified and the incident allocated the most appropriate response grading.

Where there is no location known and the CLI/AML data not sufficiently specific to reasonably allocate a resource, further checks will be undertaken by the Contact Centre in order to enable allocation.

The Contact Handler is responsible for initial checks via STORM F7 searches, previous calls and Athena. Should these checks not identify a location to attend and there is no reason to suppose the caller would be at an increased risk if called back, the contact handler will place 2 further calls back into the number, sending the abandoned 999 SMS for a mobile and leaving a voicemail for a landline, if there is the facility.

If there is reason to suppose the caller would be put at risk by a call back, the Contact Handler will escalate this call to an Contact Supervisor for continued management.

Should there continue to be no answer, or no location identified, the Supervisor will consider Golden Hour Subscriber Checks, further phone calls or sending a text message to the caller.

4.0 Equality Impact Assessment

• EIA – September 2025

5.0 Risk Assessment

In applying this procedure officers and staff need to consider the safety of the public and their own safety at all times.

We have a positive duty to uphold every person’s right to life and when responding to calls for assistance must not unduly place any person’s life at risk.

The following Essex Police policy and procedure are to be adhered to at all times:

• D 2000 Policy – Safe Driving
• H 0403 Procedure – Patrolling and Incidents on Fast Roads

6.0 Consultation

The following were invited to consult during the formulation of this document:

• Unison
• Police Federation
• Essex Diversity and Inclusion Manager
• Health & Safety
• Head of Operational Change
• PSD D/Superintendent
• Risk
• Policy
• Superintendents Association
• Strategic Force Crime & Incident Registrar
• DPO/Temp Head of Info Management
• Support Network Chairs and Vice Chairs
• LPA Commanders
• LPA District Commanders
• Contact Management
• Head of Control Centre
• Head of Contact Centre

7.0 Monitoring and Review

Compliance with this procedure will be monitored by the CPU Operations Inspector

The Contact Management Coordination and Performance Unit (CPU) will provide compliance assurance through regular dip sample and review of incidents.

Outcomes from inspections will be forwarded to the Head of the Contact and Control Centres respectively.

This procedure will be reviewed every 12 months by, or on behalf of, the Head of the Control Centre.

8.0 Governing Force policy.

Related Force policies or related procedures

• D 0500 Policy – Incident Command and Control
• D 2000 Policy – Safe Driving
• B 1601 Procedure – Missing Persons
• D 2001 Procedure – Safe Driving and General Driving Requirements
• A 1001 Procedure – Dealing with Anti-Social Behaviour
• H 0403 Procedure – Patrolling and Incidents on Fast Roads
• B 1701 Procedure - Domestic Abuse Initial Grading and Attendance
• B 0602 Procedure – Investigation of Crime

8.1 Data Security

Essex Police have measures in place to protect the security of data in accordance with our Information Management Policy – W 1000 Policy – Information Management.

8.2 Retention & Disposal of Records

Essex Police will hold data in accordance with our Records Review, Retention & Disposal Policy – W 1012 Procedure/SOP - Records Review, Retention and Disposal.

We will only hold data for as long as necessary for the purposes for which we collected. Victims/public should be reminded that Essex Police take the protection of personal data seriously as described in the privacy notice.

9.0 Other source documents, e.g., legislation, Authorised ProfessionalPractice (APP), Force forms, partnership agreements (if applicable)

• National Call Handling Standards (ACPO 2005)
• National Contact Management Principles and Practice (ACPO/NPIA 2012)
• Principles contained within the National Standard for Incident Assessment (ACPO/NPIA Draft April 2012)
• National Standard for Incident Recording (NPIA 2011)
• IPPC Learning the Lessons Bulletin 8 (October 2009)
• Essex Police’s Approach to Managing Cases of Domestic Abuse (HMIC 2013)
• Abandoned 999 Flowchart
• EIA – September 2025