A “critical incident” was narrowly avoided as calls to the police were “dropped” because of staff shortages, MSPs have been told.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie highlighted problems cited by whistle-blowers around the closure of the Glenrothes control room last week.
Police Scotland rejected the claims the Bilston Glen control room near Edinburgh was struggling to cope after taking on all emergency and routine calls from Fife.
The Mid Scotland and Fife MSP said more than 1,000 calls were dropped in one day, around a dozen staff had been off sick and it took up to 58 minutes to answer a call.
Correspondence from three separate members of staff, seen by The Courier, paints a picture of high stress levels as resources are stretched to breaking point.
In a message sent last week, one source said: “The purpose-built call centre at police HQ Glenrothes lies almost empty. How is this supplying a service to Fife’s public?”
Another added: “The force almost had what has been described as a critical incident with the amount of dropped calls.”
The Glenrothes control room is one of five across Scotland to be closed, preceded by Dumfries and Stirling and to be followed by Glasgow and Aberdeen.
Mr Rennie said: “The reports of the turmoil in Scotland’s police control centres are deeply alarming. People waiting for up to an hour is completely unacceptable and needs to be addressed by the Chief Constable and the First Minister.”
Nicola Sturgeon said the changeover period for Fife had been extended and she would raise the matter with the Justice Secretary and Police Scotland.
Chief Superintendent Val Thomson said the average time for connecting a non-emergency call is one minute and just nine seconds for people dialling 999.
She added: “On Saturday March 21 there was an issue with one call received by the Bilston Glen service centre where the caller chose an option which are treated as a lower priority.
“This call stayed in the queue longer than expected. Action has been taken to stop this happening again.
“The new larger control room at Bilston Glen gives significant opportunities to join up the command, control and call answering facilities in the East of Scotland.”