Police pull plug on auto-answer of phone system
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, July 22, 2003
[7/22/03]A person instead of a machine will answer phone calls to the Vicksburg Police Department after a week of complaints from frustrated citizens and the mayor and aldermen who said a new automated system proved complicated and too impersonal.
The system went into use earlier this month. The idea was to provide voice mailboxes for specific officers so they would get messages. That function of the $10,000 system will be retained. The plug will be pulled on the auto-answering function later this week.
“It’s just not working,” Mayor Laurence Leyens said Monday. “The new phone system at the police department needs to be answered by a human being.”
A check with PDs statewide, including the two largest, showed none without attended phones.
Police Chief Tommy Moffett said the system was installed after complaints from citizens who said it was too hard to get officers on the phone. He said during its first week that kinks needed to be worked out, but the system was working.
“The biggest problem I see with this system is that people are not used to it,” Moffett said.
One change made after the new phone system went online was to streamline the recorded greeting and simplify menu options. Moffett said that after tweaking the system, it would be faster and easier than through an attended phone, but three attempts to reach his office through the system Monday afternoon failed to get Moffett, the receptionist or the chief’s voice mail.
The automated system is the city’s first. Fire department and administrative lines are still answered by people on duty including the city’s new Action Line, which is staffed 24 hours a day.