Tuesday 27 May 2014
UNISON, Scotland's largest union representing police staff, has condemned the closure of Dumfries Police Control Room later this week (Friday) and says communities will suffer as a result.
The move is the first of five planned control room closures announced by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) earlier this year as part of a 'restructure'. The tasks currently performed at the control room - including dealing with emergency and non-emergency calls from the public and dispatching police officers to incidents - will move to Glasgow Service Centre and area control rooms.
George McIrvine, Branch Secretary of UNISON’s Police Staff Scotland Branch, said:
"A huge amount of local knowledge will be lost and communities will suffer as a result. Now, when a member of the public calls, they will be speaking to a central control centre many miles away. There is understandably a lot of anger in local communities.
