Victorians will need to learn a new number to call police with a 24-hotline being created to stop callers clogging up triple zero with non-urgent issues.
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The emergency number is being bombarded with noise complaints, neighbourhood disputes, party registrations, burglaries and thefts.
The new hotline, to start in 2019, will be for such matters to free up triple zero to deal with genuine life-threatening and urgent situations.
Almost 30 per cent of calls to triple zero are believed to be non-urgent, taking up resources from responding to emergency calls.
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The government has provided $210 million for the new service, with Victoria Police releasing its tender for the Ballarat-based call centre and online portal that is expected to create 250 new jobs.
Police Minister Lisa Neville said the service would provide another outlet for Victorians to report crimes and suspicious behaviour.
"For too long previous governments have ignored the need for a police assistance line, while other states invested in the infrastructure," she said.
The contact centre will triage calls to the police assistance line, which will be overseen by police personnel. Other states including New South Wales and Queensland operate similar services to the one proposed for Victoria.
The tender document says that local police stations are the "primary service delivery channel" for non-urgent matters and general inquiries, placing a burden on officers.
"This process is highly manual and time consuming and does not require highly trained policing capabilities," the tender says.
The absence of a dedicated phone line or online channel can contribute to delays in police responding to urgent calls, the tender says.
The service will operate 365 days a year and is expected to "go live" in January 2019. The tender calls for the hotline to be staffed by civilian employees under police supervision.
- The Age
