POLICE ability to respond to emergency calls is being hampered by the use of mobile phones, according to Borough Commander George Clarke.

Mr Clarke believes that increasing ownership of mobile phones is causing 999 call centres to be inundated with on-the-spot pleas for assistance.

Police in Waltham Forest have cut their target for emergency call response times by ten per cent.

In 1999 they planned to respond to 85 per cent of "charter" calls the highest type of emergency within 12 minutes and beat this target by two per cent.

The next year, however, they cut this target to 80 per cent and still failed to meet it.

This year the target has been reduced to just 75 per cent and police have beat it by two per cent, responding to just 77 per cent of emergency "charter" calls within 12 minutes.

This reduced ability to respond to the most serious type of emergency has been heavily criticised by Leyton MP Harry Cohen.

He said: "These figures are disappointing and show a reduction in the percentage of fast police responses to notifications of serious crimes.

"I shall be taking this up with the Home Secretary. In due course, rising police numbers will make an impact but they must get to the crime scene fast."

Mr Clarke has hit back at the MP's criticism. He said that the main reason for the lower targets and reduced ability of police to respond to emergency calls was the increasing use of mobile telephones.

He said that the rise in gun crime and the battle against street crime had also impacted adversely on police resources.

Mr Clarke said: "We are dealing with a massive surge in the number of calls we are receiving, and I would put this down to the impact of mobile phone use.

"What you should also take into account is the amount of gun-related crime and firearms offences. This is a massive drain on resources.

"Each time a firearm is involved we have to cordon off an area, and in the last twelve months we have had a two-fold increase in the number of incidents here.

"The fight against street crime has also been a major priority for us and we have had some success in responding quickly to this type of call."

July 18, 2002 11:30