KEY POINTS:
The police northern communications centre is answering emergency calls more quickly than any time on record, it said today.
Centre manager Superintendent Allan Boreham said the faster service was occurring despite more 111 calls being received.
In May last year, an independent panel's review of New Zealand's police communications centres described them as inadequate.
North Comms faced particular scrutiny two years ago after the disappearance of Aucklander Iraena Asher, who remains missing.
Police sent a taxi to Piha to pick her up after she called 111 for help, but the taxi went to the wrong address.
Mr Boreham said North Comms' performance had improved significantly over the past 18 months.
He said the world standard, or "service level", was that 90 per cent of emergency calls should be answered within 10 seconds.
"Last week, our service level for 111 calls hit 97 per cent for the second time this year -- our best results yet," he said in a statement.
"Compare that to our worst week, in February 2005, when we were at 52 per cent, and you can see how far we've come."
Mr Boreham said the annual statistics also showed positive trends.
In 2001, North Comms took 250,167 emergency calls. Last year, the figure rose to 376,899, with increases in population and mobile phone use being given as reasons.
Over the same period, the percentage of calls answered within 10 seconds varied between 74 per cent and 87 per cent.
Call volume for 2006 was likely to be even higher, but the current service level was the best yet at 91 per cent.
New South Wales police chief superintendent Mick Corboy, who chaired the independent review, said he was impressed with the progress made by the communications centres.
He said the time taken to answer 111 calls had been a real concern when the panel conducted its review.
"New Zealand is reaching the 90 per cent world standard service level all the time now, and I'm very pleased," he said.
"North Comms in particular has come a long way."
- NZPA