Police describe 111 as solid and effective, but reports call it increasingly fragile
Police have described New Zealand's 111 emergency call system as "solid" and "effective", but police reports to the government have called it "increasingly fragile" and said it creates safety risks for the public and for police officers, according to RNZ.
Inspector Natasha Rodley, acting director for communications and dispatch at NZ Police, was asked about the two descriptions. She said of the system being both effective and fragile: "We actually think they both are true."
The 111 system is built on technology from the 1990s. Police, fire and ambulance services all use it, but none of them is responsible for all of it or for developing it. The front end is privately run and owned by telecommunications company Spark.
Police reports to the government have described the system in several ways. A 2023 police report described deaths and injury related to constraints or failures in the system. A policing improvement report said 111 faced persistent reliability and performance issues, with some faults taking weeks to resolve. It also said outages, including planned ones, put pressure on call-takers and compromised public safety.
A further policing report said maintaining 111 presented public safety risks, and that its fragility presented a fundamental risk to emergency response. A police briefing to Minister Mark Mitchell said the current system created safety risks for first responders, including police, ambulance and fire staff. A 2025 briefing to the minister outlined what it called "seven key vulnerabilities" in the system that created risks.
Asked whether the 111 system presents a fundamental risk to emergency response, Inspector Rodley said: "As of today, no." She said she would change her answer to "yes" on whether the system creates safety risks for responders, so that it matched the police report to the minister.
