@thetimes: Britain’s 999 police call handlers, most of whom are not police officers but civilian staff, are experiencing a hidden crisis. It is well known that the wider police force suffer from the stress and trauma of their jobs, but because of the office-based nature of call-handling roles, 999 workers have not received the same attention — until now, thanks to new research. According to the neuropsychologist Dr Jess Miller, 48, and her colleagues at the University of Cambridge — sponsored by the charity Police Care UK — about one in five of all police personnel are thought to be living with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition caused by relentless exposure to stressful, abusive and violent situations, rather than a single catastrophic event as in the more widely understood PTSD. The NHS says CPTSD can come with “feelings of worthlessness, shame and guilt, problems controlling your emotions, difficulty connecting with other people and relationship problems such as trouble keeping friends and partners”. Steve Boggan spends a night at Guildford’s Force Command Centre. *FOR NEWS PURPOSES* #policeofficer #police #ukpolice #MentalHealth #cptsd #ptsd #crime #emergencyservices #ukcrime

Geoff Epstine :

Maybe pay them more than band 3 and you’ll relieve some of the pressure lol

Manfred :

506 calls is less than 50% of the calls the bigger forces take. Go & work a shift with WYP, SYP or GMP...

mrbenbob :

You want to go to a big force which takes thousands of calls if you think that's bad!

Ally Morrell :

Come to one of the mets centres taking 12k calls a day

Becki 💙 :

West Yorkshire has an average for 2500+... its organised chaos most days

Jordan Mayes :

50 handlers!?

happy_day868 :

Hey, at least all the ex government companies sold in the 80s are making profits…

Jane Walker :

This doesn’t ring true, not seen anyone in my experience traumatised by doing this job & I have 20 years experience. You get day to day stress of any busy high pressure job but not usually with what we deal with

Julie Joanne Fellows :

U should try a week of social work! I also agree that the 999 callers are under pressure!

Ghspro :

Try working in London

Jouleskasp0700 :

Great work

Jacob (!) :

Ok fyp I get it you know I live in Guildford

★ KR5BXZ ★ :

fundinguk :

Nice to see a balanced and thoughtful report on police contact centre and control room - tough job and rarely gets the recognition it deserves publicly

JoeW :

That’s not the only area where police staff have a high turnover due to burnout /bullying/ ridiculous expectations. Try working in a busy custody suite!

TOM75UK :

if you live in a poor area you'll be lucky they come out and help you but they'll always come out to rich area very quick🤔

Space Whale Shark :

And then police dispatch take their frustration out on ambulance call handlers xoxo

Charles :

Police commissioners don’t give a shite. It’s all about money

Lirish :

One shift. Oh well done you, that's absolutely enough to know exactly what it's like

Natsarym🕊 :