Superintendent Ian Coates
Head of Specialist Operations and Communications
Specialist Operations and Communications Department
Established in June 2007 with the merger of the Specialist Operations and Control Room departments, the Service Unit was formulated to further enhance the strategic capacity of the Force and to meet the increasing challenges faced in these specialist areas of policing.
The Service Unit has the following functionality:
The Control Room provides a 24 hour, 365 days a year service; it manages emergency and non-emergency calls and deploys police resources to a wide range of incidents. On average, the department receives 1,000 calls and manages around 700 incidents per day. This service is delivered through the core functions of Call Handling & Dispatch, Switchboard, Public Service Desk, Crime Bureau and PNC Bureau.
The Specialist Operations limb of the department consists of the following teams: Dog and Mounted Sections, Firearms, Road Policing Unit, Traffic Management, ANPR, Emergency Planning, Air Support Unit and Specialist Support Unit. These teams play a key role in supporting front line officers and a have responsibility for a number of specialist policing areas which are vital to protect public safety. These include counter-terrorism patrols, civil contingencies and emergency planning, major incident management, public order, casualty reduction and strategic roads policing.
