Northumbria Police – Digital Desk

The challenge

The solution

Northumbria Police created a dedicated ‘Digital Desk’ by combining two of its teams – its Comms & Engagement Digital Team and Customer Service Centre (CSC). This enabled the force to monitor incoming contact from community members regardless of which channel they chose.

The team also took steps to reduce its number of social accounts from 72 to four. With only four accounts to choose from (one Facebook, one X, one Instagram, one Nextdoor and one Linkedin), the idea was that people would feel more confident in making contact.

The results

For Northumbria Police and the communities it serves, the benefits of setting up a ‘Digital Desk’ have been wide-ranging. Using Orlo, Northumbria Police now handle a report of a crime or incident from beginning to end. They triage 1,000 messages per day from the public, on average. At this time, Northumbria is the only force in the country that monitors all of its social media channels 24/7.

People get consistently exceptional service, however they choose to get in touch with the police. And because the force reduced its number of social accounts, people have a clearer idea of where to make contact. The NPCC mentioned Northumbria as a flagship force, thanks to their new strategy to handle social contact.

More crimes reported = safer streets

Most importantly,the team’s game-changing approach means that more crimes are reported. Upon setting up the ‘Digital Desk’, the team became aware that channel shifting wasn’t only inconvenient for the user, but it was stopping people from reporting a crime. Now, more crimes and incidents are reported because the team offers an excellent and consistent response at the first point of contact. Each month, the team creates an average of 55 incidents on Storm (a software that record crime incidents), due to messages sent via social media. If social media channels weren’t available to the public, there’s an argument that these messages would never reach the police. From finding missing children to addressing safeguarding issues quickly, Northumbria’s Digital Desk has been instrumental in delivering its mission of preventing crime and offering outstanding service.