111 'solid', 'fragile', 'effective' and a safety risk - all at the same time

Police say the 111 emergency call system is "solid" and "effective", despite their own reports to the government calling it "increasingly fragile", and creating safety risks for the public and their own officers.

The system is built on 1990s technology and police are working to find a replacement, but were unable to give a timeline to RNZ for delivering one, after more than four years.

"It is complicated, but we are working on it with urgency," acting director for communications and dispatch Inspector Natasha Rodley said.

RNZ asked how 111 could be both effective and fragile at the same time.

"We actually think they both are true," said Rodley. "There's always opportunities to be better, to make improvements and that's what our new system would look to do, to build on what we've got, which is a solid system, and make it even better, more accessible, and more modern so that it's not reliant on voice calls."

Several times, she emphasised that people would get an effective response by calling 111.

Police reports to the government in 2023 detailed how that was not always the case - they described actual deaths and injury related to constraints or failures in the system, as RNZ revealed in 2024.

Another report on improving the whole of policing in April said: "The system has faced persistent reliability and performance issues, compounded by difficulties in integrating with other agencies, with some faults taking weeks to resolve.

"These outages and planned outages put pressure on call-takers and compromise public safety."

Maintaining 111 presented public safety risks, while its fragility and complicated structure presented a fundamental risk to emergency response, it said.

RNZ: "Does the system present a fundamental risk to emergency response?"

Rodley: "As of today, no."

RNZ: "Why does your report say it does?"

Rodley: "Because there are opportunities to be better always and it is an ageing system."

Police, fire and ambulance share the system, but none is responsible for it all or developing it. To complicate things, the front end is privately run and owned by telecommunications company Spark.

Spark has said it wants that to change.

A police briefing to minister Mark Mitchell a year ago said the current system created safety risks for first responders - police, ambulance and fire staff.

RNZ: "Do you accept that?"

Rodley: "No."

RNZ: "Do you want to explain why you don't agree with the report that went to the minister?"

The inspector then asked RNZ to quote the report, which included outlining "seven key vulnerabilities" that the minister was told in 2025 created the risks.

RNZ: "Has something happened in the intervening year that we have not yet reported on that has changed that situation?"

Rodley: "No, I think I probably am interpreting it differently. I doubt whether that has changed.

"I guess then I have to change my answer to 'yes', because I would be consistent with the report."

The risk to responders was largely about the difficulty sharing information between the front-lines, she said.

"Maybe all three emergency services need to be involved and they are all not able to be contacted at the same time, which is a limitation of our current system."

She added: "It's an ageing system and IT moves quickly, and we want to make sure that we've got a robust system into the future."

When would that happen?

"That is what we are working through currently with the future of the emergency contact system working group to get the right information for the ministers for that decision to be made."

The aim was to have the next briefing to ministers in February, nine months later than forecast in early 2026.

"As you know, this is complicated and getting all the information together is a lengthy process."

What happened after February would depend on the government, she said.

"It was never going to be a quick process. This is critical infrastructure - we've got to get this right."

The improvement plan in April 2026 said a new 111 system might be in place in the 2027/28 financial year.

Was that still the aim?

"That would be an aspirational date, absolutely," Rodley said.

Had they looked overseas for an idea of the possible cost?

"No, no, we're not at that stage yet, sorry... honestly, we're just not at that stage yet."

The April report called 111 "increasingly unfit for purpose", but Rodley said police's main message was the system "as it stands, is operating effectively".

"Both are true, that the current system is effective and solid, but there are opportunities to provide a far better service to the New Zealand public."