Members of the public can report non-emergency incidents or crime at www.psni.police.uk and then clicking on the “Report a crime” button at the top right of the screen. Users are asked to confirm the incident is not an emergency incident. A series of questions can then be completed to submit an online report. It takes under 5 minutes to complete, depending on the complexity of the report.
Online reports are received by secure email to Contact Management and manually inputted to our Incident and Dispatch IT programme by a trained call handler. The incident is assessed for threat, harm, investigative opportunities, and issues in relation to vulnerability or vulnerable persons, and whether it is a community priority issue in the area it is reported (the national THRIVE model). The reports are then responded to in the same way as an incoming telephone call. The reports are processed within 12 hours of submission and we aim to get back to the reporting person within 24 hours. Last year we received 14,385 reports via this method, around 2.5% of all demand.
The current online capability has been considered as part of the Contact Management Review, and in line with the NPCC Contact Management Strategy, to consider how we could increase the option of online reporting to the public. With the likely adoption by the PSNI of the ‘National Single Online Home’ platform, this is the likely direction of travel.
Our Corporate Plan contains a transformational digital strategy and the ability to expand our reporting options is being explored. Part of our new Head of Corporate Communication’s portfolio will be to further development of our digital hub. This will ensure that we continue to interact with the public as broadly as possible.