Have you ever wondered what people across Cambridgeshire are calling 999 for?
The force is set to run a social media ‘Postathon’, in honour of Control Room Week, to demonstrate the hard work and dedication of its control room staff.
We will update our Facebook and Instagram pages every 30 minutes summarising every 999 call that has come into the control room during that time frame.
It is hoped that the Postathon, which will be held between 4pm-9pm on 25 October, will provide the public with an insight into the daily demand control room staff face.
In September, the demand hub received 12,478 calls to 999, 19,024 calls to 101 as well as 2,309 web chats and 2,575 online reports.
Superintendent Nick Church, head of demand, said: “We often hear about officers on the frontline, but rarely do we hear about the hard work and resilience of our control room staff, who are on hand 24 hours a day to help the public whenever they need police assistance.
“This Postathon is important not only to raise awareness of the volume of calls we receive, but also to demonstrate the variety and complexity of some of the incidents we deal with, too. “I would like to use this opportunity to thank our control room staff, whose hard work, resilience and dedication does not go unnoticed. Their hard work is absolutely vital in keeping Cambridgeshire safe.”
You can tune in to the Postathon by following @CambsCops on Facebook and Instagram and looking out for updates on Friday (25 October). We will also be taking to our social media pages throughout the week in honour of Control Room Week, where we have shared posts featuring call handler Lyndsay and dispatcher Aimee.
Having recently returned from maternity leave with a young family, Aimee said: “I wanted a role which would give me a good work life balance, however I still wanted a fast paced environment, and that is definitely what the control room offers.”
Call handler Lyndsay said: “when we answer calls, we never know what we are going to be dealing with. I have experienced and learnt about situations working here that I would never have thought I’d come across!”
The force is currently recruiting for control room staff, including call handlers and dispatchers. Find out more or apply on the force’s website.
