British bases new ‘Unified Command and Control Room’ goes live

The Sovereign Base Area (SBA) police have confirmed that a new unified command and control room based at its Akrotiri station went live on June 6 and will now act as the focal point for all incoming calls to emergency services.

The decision to merge what was previously two control rooms – the other was in Dhekelia – came as a result of the police’s constant drive to improve its service to the public and allow for better coordination across all blue light services and customs and immigration.

Dhekelia Deputy Divisional Commander, Superintendent Andreas Pitsillides, explained why the decision was made to introduce the new system.

He said: “Firstly, we wanted to be able to ensure efficient coordination of routine taskings of the police and Customs and Immigration, but it was also extremely important that we could offer swift support to all of the emergency services across the SBAs.

“The new control room also ensures there is efficient coordination between all emergency services to all critical and security incidents across the SBAs.

It will also allow a more effective liaison with emergency services in the Republic and when needed, the Turkish Cypriot authorities, it added.

But despite the launch of the new command and control room, Pitsillides was also keen to point out that the police’s front of house operations would not be affected.

He said: “Both the ESBA and the WSBA will still have a front office counter that will be open to the general public, operating between 9am-12pm and 3pm-5pm, Monday to Friday and between 9am-12pm and 4pm-6pm at the weekend and on public holidays.”

All emergency numbers remain the same.