Mainlanders get through in much shorter time

South Islanders are getting through to police twice as fast as their northern counterparts, latest figures show.

Figures released by National MP Tony Ryall show that 111 callers to the police Southern Communications Centre in Christchurch, which covers the South Island, last month waited an average six seconds for an answer.

Calls took 13 seconds on average to be answered in Wellington and 15 seconds in Auckland.

For general calls to police, the southern centre last month answered on average in 25 seconds, compared with 61 seconds in Auckland and 77 in Wellington.

The performance of police communications centres came under fire last month in a review that found the system put public safety at risk.

Police Minister George Hawkins, who released the figures after a parliamentary question from Mr Ryall, said waiting times could be skewed.

"[Mr Ryall] should note that the average wait-to-answer time is not a robust performance measure as it is unduly sensitive to occasional long waiting times," he said.

Police aim to answer 90 per cent of 111 calls within 10 seconds and 80 per cent of general calls within 30 seconds.

Southern centre manager Inspector Kieran Kortegast said it was difficult to comment on the answering-time figures because there were so many variables.

The North Island centres had to cope with bigger and more diverse populations and larger call volumes.

"We have got more staff than central comms, and northern comms has a lot more junior staff," he said. "And then there are the motorways. In Auckland, if there is an accident on the motorway, you might get 50 or 60 people calling on cellphones."

Other figures released by Mr Ryall showed that 1914 of the 31,229 calls made to the southern centre last month were abandoned before they were answered.

Mr Kortegast said there would always be some calls abandoned by people not willing to wait.

- NZPA