Lindsay Judge - Call Handling Centre - A day in the life - Careers - Surrey Police

Profile: Lindsay Judge - Call Handling Centre

With an average of 1400 calls per day, the Contact Centre is by no means a dull place to work. We’re based at purpose-built offices at Surrey Police Headquarters in Guildford. It’s a very comfortable atmosphere in which to work, and is equipped with up-to-date telephones and computer hardware.

Full time Contact Centre staff work a 5 week shift pattern, covering earlies, lates and nights, and there are part time staff working flexible hours helping us cover our busiest times. The Contact Centre is manned 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

We spend the majority of the day on the phone, taking a mixture of 999 calls, non urgent calls, and crime reports from members of the public and police officers. The variety is as great as the uncertainty although all agents are trained to deal with most situations. We deal with incidents and crimes for the whole of Surrey, and our priority is to take the 999 calls. One moment we might be dealing with a victim of a serious offence, and the next talking to a resident who has simply lost their house keys (by no means something that requires a 999 call, but it happens, and we understand that it can be a distressing experience). The crime reports we create give details of what has happened. These reports are then forwarded for possible investigation and, where relevant, to our Scenes of Crime Officers.

We are trained to deal with all types of calls, and all calls are taken seriously. We will prioritise and then pass the call on to the relevant department. No one is ignored. People react in a different way to differing situations and it is an acquired skill to understand the individual’s needs and react accordingly. We do get prank calls, and occasionally people phone up for the wrong reasons – again, we are trained on what advice to offer, and give out correct numbers or pass to the appropriate agency.

People are often calling the police for the first time, or need to report a particularly distressing event, or both. There can be a lot of emotions flowing down the phone line. Being the first port of call, we have to use our initiative to calm the caller, ask the right questions, to get the required information. .

There’s an initial full time training period of seven weeks which is thorough. After the initial training course there is a period of coaching in the Contact Centre with an experienced Operator for a while until you are ready to work on your own. There is constant support and help is always at hand. Your skills are developed along the way, and there is room for learning a number of new skills too.

Personal development is taken seriously and there are ongoing Training and refresher days throughout the year for all staff in the Contact Centre, and there is room for promotion.

The Contact Centre thrives on a friendly and team-focussed culture where colleagues work together assisting and encouraging each other –you will be given space to grow independently as well as within the team.