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Police say the new risk-and-harm framework for handling 111 calls has been set up after looking overseas for ideas.
A section of the emergency and 105 calls centre has begun a two-month trial of the new way of prioritising all calls.
Police said they looked at similar frameworks in the UK and Australia before setting it up.
The new framework sets a threshold for police to go to a job, based on factors such as severity of the offending or risk, who is involved, and what obligations police have.
"Where a request for service does not meet the matrix threshold for attendance by police first responders, alternative response options have been determined," a police spokesperson told RNZ.
"These options are selected by well-trained communicators or dispatchers."'
Training on the new framework was done in August.
If it works, the new 111 prioritisation system could undergo more tests or be rolled out nationally, as a key part of police reducing the demands from rising social harm callouts.
The trial is occurring in the run-up to police also reducing their response to mental harm callouts, from November.
Police listed the key factors in the new risk-harm framework:
- Severity - calltakers gauge how severe the offending is or how imminent the risk is to people or property.
- Circumstances - whether sending officers out significantly reduces the risk, prevents offending, apprehends offenders, or secures evidence.
- Attributes - is anyone vulnerable involved?
- Need - is there a legal or organisational onus on police to go, or a "community reassurance-based obligation" to attend?
Police said one benefit was that by "promptly" closing out non-police calls - that are redirected to another agency - their communicators had time to take more calls from people who do need police.
It should make police more available to high priority callouts, and make it more consistent whether officers attended or not, they said.
"The framework has been designed to allow police to prioritise frontline resources to attend calls for service requiring police, and recommend alternate pathways where immediate attendance is not required."
Under the trial, priority one call response remains the same as before; priority two calls get assessed under the new framework; priority three calls provide information to districts.