There is no crisis in police call-handling, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) has told MSPs.
Derek Penman said good progress has been made following a critical review of the service published in November 2015.
Police Scotland has completed more than half of the recommendations made by HMICS as a result of the review.
Call volumes have continued to improve through improved management of the use of 999 and 101, with calls to both numbers being answered quickly.
Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) are also making progress in developing new measures to assess the quality of call-handling, HMICS has said.
Appearing at Holyrood's Justice Sub-Committee on Policing, Mr Penman said the improvements were against a backdrop of "one of the most critical reports that HMICS has ever done in terms of call-handling".
He said it was important to note that call handlers were "doing a good job in very difficult circumstances".
"It would be helpful just to recognise the improvement that has been made in police call-handling in Scotland," he told MSPs.
"There is just something there (affecting staff) about this constant feeling that in some way police call-handling is not working effectively or the headlines that appear in papers around crisis-ridden call-handling or issues around particular service centres.
"I think that definitely has an impact on morale for staff who probably will see improvements and will feel that things are actually better than they were."
The review, which was initiated following the deaths of John Yuill and Lamara Bell in July 2015, led to staff reporting their own concerns to inspectors.
Mr Yuill and Ms Bell lay undiscovered for days after a crash on the M9 near Stirling despite a sighting of their wrecked car being reported to a police control-room.
"Back in August 2015 we were speaking to focus groups of staff who were queuing up at our door wanting to speak to us, wanting to tell us their experiences," Mr Penman said.
"We don't have that any more. We have people who we go around speaking to who actually tell us about the improvements that have been made.
"I think staff are much better-placed now that they were but the processes are in place for them to raise issues of concern."
He added: "This for me (is about) realising that there is always going to be risk and things will always happen ... but actually recognising that improvement has been made and actually that there is no crisis in police call-handling."
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