Police Scotland needs more 999 call handlers
Police Scotland has told Forth News the force needs more call handlers to deal with the 999 emergencies and 101 enquires.
At Bilston Glen Service Centre the phone-calls for the East of Scotland are taken, which plays a crucial part in Police Scotland keeping people safe.
Our reporter Shiona McCallum caught up with some of the staff there, including Brenda McKissock and James Gillies (pictured).
Brenda said; “I’ve worked here for over 13 years – since it opened – and I’ve seen a lot of changes, its part and parcel of the job. The calls though are largely the same since Police Scotland was centralised, it just means that we receive calls from all over the country.
“You need to remain calm under pressure, because as you can imagine we are dealing with volatile situations. Communication skills are absolutely key for this job. People will phone up and are perhaps being assaulted by their partner, or they have witnessed quite a serious incident or perhaps their child has been injured in some sort of way; so tensions are generally high when the calls come in.”
You can listen to her here:
Police Scotland is currently recruiting for Service Advisors across the country and an open day is being held for the East on the 31st May, for people interested in applying for the vacancies.