Metropolitan Police PC sacked for 999 calls failures

A sign showing the logo of the Metropolitan Police The officer was based at the Metropolitan Police's emergency response centre in Bow, east London An emergency phone operator working for the Metropolitan Police has been sacked for mishandling 999 calls. The 58-year-old PC, whose name has not been released, left the public in "potentially dangerous situations" by failing to follow up or obstructing requests for help, Scotland Yard said. The force said he did not provide a response to 141 cases, including rapes, domestic abuse and a suicide threat. However, it said nobody had been put at risk because of the failings. The officer was based at Bow Central Command Centre in east London. All of the cases took place over a 12-week period between May and July 2009, when the PC handled about 3,000 emergency calls. He was negligent in almost 5% of these, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said. His behaviour amounted to gross misconduct during 19 of the calls he took, it added. 'Beggars belief' The IPCC said that on seven occasions the PC deliberately altered the final digit of the alleged victims' telephone numbers, and later explained he was trying "to avoid conflict with his supervisors". A woman who had reported a domestic assault complained after ringing 999 and finding the officer struggled to correctly spell her surname. She told a friend who also worked at the centre in Bow, and managers were informed. A subsequent Met investigation reviewed all of the calls dealt with by the officer, and established that nobody had been put at risk as a result of his failures. "It beggars belief that a police officer whose job was to help people in distress should have behaved in such an appalling and callous way," said the IPCC's commissioner in London, Deborah Glass. "It is a matter of luck - and the persistence of those seeking help - that his actions do not appear to have resulted in serious harm to a member of the public."