RCMP in Alberta are working on a new system designed to save officers time and keep them on the streets longer, which should be good news to those worried about rural crime.

The initiative allows front line officers to respond to calls, and instead of heading back to the detachment to fill in paperwork, they can do it over the phone with the new "Police Reporting and Occurrence System" or "PROS."

Civilians working at the "pros" data centre collect and transcribe the data, allowing officers to remain on patrol.

It means officers spend about 3.5 minutes dictating their data, instead of driving back to the detachment, doing the paperwork and then heading back out again.

They've also brought in what they're calling the "Call Back Unit" which frees up officers from non-emergency calls, meaning it can be managed over the phone or transferred back to front line members for further investigation on a case-by-case basis.

If further investigation is required on the ground, the police file will be transferred back to the front-line member for follow-up.

As before, Alberta RCMP will continue to immediately respond to emergency calls with the highest priority.

From the RCMP Release:

Although the Call Back Unit has only been in effect since February and the Data Centre remains in its pilot phase, both Call Management Initiatives are seeing positive results.

- The Call Back Unit diverted and answered 3,853 calls for service which would have previously been dispatched directly to RCMP frontline members.

- These calls realized a savings of 9,390 hours representing nine General Duty Constable's workload in one year.

- The PROS Data Centre Pilot Project has reduced data entry for participating RCMP frontline members from approximately 30 minutes to 3 minutes and 30 seconds, not including travel time.

- Based on 868 police files entered since the pilot program launched in June, the PROS Data Centre has saved 375 hours of data entry time for RCMP frontline members, not including travel time.

Quick facts:

- In 2017, the Operational Communications Centre (OCC) received almost 700,000 complaints and 911 calls. A significant number of those calls were non-emergency and did not require police officer attendance.

- Types of calls handled by the Call Back Unit may include minor thefts, attempted frauds and scams, and reports of traffic offences that are not taking place at the time of the complaint.

- The call management initiatives were funded, in part, through the Government of Alberta's $8 million investment to the RCMP announced in March, 2018.