Cambridgeshire police shed light on life in control room
More than 200 incidents were posted during the force's annual 'postathon'
A call handler at Cambridgeshire Police has told us how she tries to tackle the daily pressures people like her face.
The force posted details of around 206 incidents on its social media pages last Friday during its annual 'postathon', to give the public an insight into life of control room staff.
"Sometimes the hardest thing is we'll end that call and we don't always know what happens; sometimes there isn't a conclusion," Andrea Poulter-Kyne, one call handler at the force, said.
"The next call comes in and it can be a completely different type of call, but you just have to be ready."
Andrea - who's dealt with 999 and 101 calls - undertook a nine to 10-week training course before taking on the role.
But she said that doesn't always prepare you for all situations.
"You rely on that (training) heavily but it is by doing it over and over again that you learn how to deal with everything, but you never know what you're going to get," she admitted.
"People aren't calling 999 because they're having a good day; it's an important situation and they may well never have called the emergency services before."
Silent calls to reports of violence
Out of the incidents that happened during the 'postathon', police said 32 of these were silent calls, 31 related to domestic abuse and violence, seven involved missing people and 46 were road-related.
More than 100 of these calls were graded as 'no response', meaning police were not required to attend while 35 were deemed 'immediate', which means police are needed to attend straight away.
Some people took to social media to share their thoughts on the 'postathon'.
One said it was “really interesting to see the range of calls. Some insight into what the police are involved with!”
Another user said: “And whenever something serious happens, people on Facebook always say where’s the police?
"I think you have demonstrated tonight in just a couple of hours where you are and how many “little” things you have to deal with!”
'You don't know what's going to affect you'
Andrea's been in the force for around two years, and there are certain incidents that hit harder.
"It's hard because you don't always know what things are going to affect you," she said.
"We do deal with people that are in crisis and potentially harming themselves, and that's quite hard to hear that somebody is in that much distress and whatever you're trying to do to help them, to hear that is sometimes quite hard to process.
"They're the ones that sometimes stick in your head for a little while."
The training that Andrea and other call handlers receive help them know how to approach and deal with an emergency call.
But if helping people in distress gets too much, support is available.
"I think we're quite good at talking to our colleagues to say 'that was tough, you did this really well' and it's that encouragement we try to give to each other that helps during those times," Andrea added.
"I don't think you can ever say you'll have two calls that are the same; you have to take each call on its own merit."