Staffordshire Police will soon deploy an AI system in its contact centre in a bid to cut call waiting times.

The force is set to become the third in the country to take part in a pilot scheme trialling the use of artificial intelligence 'agents' for non-emergency contacts.

Under this system, the AI agent would deal with simple queries such as requests for information without the need for human involvement, freeing up call handlers and reducing answering times.

Staffordshire Police has previously been plagued with lengthy waits on its non-emergency 101 service, although answering times and abandonment rates have both improved over the last 12 months.

Police, fire and crime commissioner Ben Adams quizzed senior officers about the use of technology to further improve contact centre performance.

During the police public performance meeting, acting Chief Constable Becky Riggs confirmed the force would be looking to launch the AI pilot early in the new year.

She said: "We're seeking to bring in some AI in a pilot scheme. Nationally there are three forces that are going to pilot this, and we are one of those three.

"It's a piece of technology called Agentforce. It will help with our response to the public, which historically we know we haven't done well.

"We also know that sometimes members of the public are calling not necessarily to report a crime, they just want some further information, and they will be able to access some of that information immediately through this type of technology.

"But for reassurance, that particular piece of technology has got keyword enhancement to it, so if there is anything there that suggests vulnerability or risk or emergency, then it will be able to divert it to a human being.

"Thames Valley have gone live with that pilot and they are reporting very positively in relation to that."

Assistant chief officer for resources John Bloomer stressed the AI system would only be used for non-emergency contacts.

He said: "What it does in terms of contact is free up call handling and resource for people who would rather use that as a method of contact.

"There may be generational differences, with younger people tending to prefer this sort fo function when they're contacting businesses, more than other generations. So it will enable us to answer 101 calls even more quickly, which is a real positive."

Mr Bloomer added that in future, the system could direct members of the public to relevant partner agencies if their query related to a non-policing matter.

Staffordshire Police currently takes an average of 3.3 minutes to answer 101 calls, down 53 per cent on the 7.1 minute average in the previous 12 months.

The abandonment rate for non-emergency calls has also fallen from 29.2 per cent to 18.7 per cent.

After triage, callers who need to speak to a specialist operator face a median wait of 8.75 minutes.

But Mr Adams raised concerns that around eight per cent of callers are left waiting for over an hour.

He said: "We've been referring to them as outliers because 92 per cent are not experiencing that, and that's even when 500 people phone up because there's an issue on the M6.

"What are we doing about these outliers?"

Ms Riggs said the force had launched a service to call back members of the public who had experienced lengthy 101 waits, in order to apologise and further discuss their reason for calling.

She said: "One per cent of outliers is not good enough as far as we're concerned as an organisation.

"We shouldn't have people waiting over an hour to speak to the police service, even in a non-emergency case.

"We have reaped the benefits of significant intelligence as a result of those call backs. I think we've surprised people and increased their confidence by taking that kind of approach."