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Bethani Fomes who works as a contact handler, answering 999 and 101 calls reveals what it's like to work in the Force Control Room and the types of calls you need to be ready for. She shares her greatest moments and those she has found most challenging.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - It was quite a big wood so, no one really knew where she was, she wasn't off of any sort of path, there was no tracks to try and find her, and she was so distraught. She changed her mind and she wanted to go back to the hospital, she wanted to get some help. In the end we had drones out, there was dogs out. The whole time I stayed on the phone with her.
It could be anything you never know, from a shoplifting, or my neighbours have moved my bins, to a public cardiac arrest, passed through from the ambulance service, it could be, a car crash, that turns out to be fatal.
Different calls, different scenarios can have different impacts on different people. There's great support within the control room, we have peer support, which is sort of just normal people like us from the control room who have had sort of specialised training so that they can offer you some extra support if you need it, go for meetings, even if you just need to sit down for sort of five minutes just to get something off your chest. Just to, you know lift that weight a little bit.
Just to say that I'm part of Kent Police it's a big achievement, not everybody can say that. Nowhere that I've worked before has been the same, everyone's just so friendly, and so nice if you're having a bad day anyone, someone will come up to you and ask if you're alright, it is definitely friends for life. [Music].
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager - Welcome to More Than The Badge, a Kent Police podcast. My name is Samantha Matthews, I'm the force Child Centred Policing Manager and I'm going to be your host today. Today's guest is Bethany Fomes who is a contact handler in the force control room, she's worked for Kent Police for nearly two years.
Welcome to the podcast Bethani.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes – Hello, thank you for having me.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – So, let's start with your motivation in policing today. So, you've been in post coming up to 18 months now. So, what inspired you to become a contact handler?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - My schoolteacher. He was a detective, and he had the craziest stories ever, honestly, every day he had a new story to tell us. It was great!
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – So how abouts did you go seeing that there was a role of contact handler?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - I saw it in Indeed.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Oh okay.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - and Facebook as well actually, I think it did pop up on the suggested pages on Facebook, and I just thought ‘why not’.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Absolutely, I mean sometimes, I think in policing in particular, I think it's about just giving things a go, and then once you're in, there's suddenly opportunities to explore as well. So, how does the role you're currently in differ from your previous jobs?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Oh so, so different. I used to work in Sainsbury’s, and it's just so different, the pressure, but also the reward, it's such a massive difference.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – The role of contact handler it's, you know vital in terms of enabling us, to respond to the public in a professional manner. So, could you talk us through, what does your role entail?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - There's a lot to it. So, you sort of start 15 minutes earlier just to make sure that you're there, you're ready to go, for on the hour. I like to get there about half an hour early just to make sure I'm really ready to go, and get a coffee, go to the toilet if you need to, just be ready to start for the hour, and then there's sort of all different shifts that you can do. So, there's early turns, late turns and night duty, but, the latest I will finish is 10pm because I'm on core hours contract. So, my earliest start is a 6am, and my latest finish is at 10pm but, if you were on night duty, that could be at 10pm until 6am shift. So, it sort of varies depending on what contract.
Obviously, you get the call come through, there's you have different sounds come in, depending on if it's a 999 or a 101 call. So, if it's going to be a 999 call it sort of buzzes like an alarm, but the first thing you got to do is get where they are, because if you haven't got where they are you can't send anyone out, you can't send an officer nowhere. So, you got to get that, and then take the details, take their name, what it is that's going on, you have to thrive it, to what the threat, harm and risk is.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – So, you've got to have a really good understanding of risk in your job?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Oh yeah, we have to risk assess absolutely everything. Could be anything, you never know, from a shoplifting or my neighbours have moved my bins, to a public cardiac arrest, passed through from the ambulance service. It could be a car crash, that's turns out to be fatal, where somebody's sadly passed away, and you never know, could vary from sort of the low scale of threat, harm and risk to the top end.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – So, I mean from what you' said there, I think the reality is you just don't know what's coming next on the call, so you kind of have to be ready for anything.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Yeah you never know, you never know what's going to be on the other side of the phone.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – In relation to that then, how do you deal with the more emotional impact some of the calls you get.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - They say leave everything at the door, which sometimes can be quite difficult depending on what it is that you've dealt with that day ‘cause some things, might take more of a toll than others but, it is, sometimes it's difficult but, it just, you do what you got to do at the end of the day, you go to work do a job.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – and what sort of support mechanisms do you have in place, you know within the organisation that can help you?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - There's great support within the control room, we have peer support which is, sort of just normal people like us from the control room, who have had sort of specialised training so that they can offer you some extra support if you need it, go for meetings. Even if you just need to sit down for sort of five minutes just to get something off your chest, just to you know lift that weight a little bit, and we also have our Trauma, Risk Incident Management or TRIM, which is basically, sort of people within the control room, so team leaders, dispatchers, who send out the officers. Contact handlers who are also trained if there's been a really distressing sort of major incident that's happened, so for example; maybe a pile up on the motorway, or a death, or you know something that's really going to take a toll on somebody, they will reach out as well and ask if you need any sort of extra support, how they can help you, sort of offer you ways of helping yourself if you don't necessarily want to reach out to them, and that's really helpful, but on a day that you might get, sort of a particularly difficult call, no matter what it might be, you know you can take five minutes away just to calm yourself down if you need it, go and get a drink, get some fresh air, just to make sure that, you know you're ready for the next one. Give you that sort of downtime that you might need, and yeah which is really useful ‘cause I've definitely had to do it sometimes, it just does get too much and you do just need them five minutes just to yourself, or with the friend just to, you know unload.
Different calls, different scenarios, can have different impacts on different people, so it sort of depends on how strong willed you are for how, well you can handle the emotional impact. So, for example, a domestic incident might, you know affect me a lot more than the next person, but then something that doesn't affect me, so for example, a death, might affect them more, but there's always that support.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – You're saying about friends there. So, I've had friends who developed their careers, within the force control room, some have stayed in, others become officers, and the thing that's always stuck with me is how they've always said they had a family feel, about the force control room. So, from your perspective what is the kind of camaraderie, the team spirit like in the force control room?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - It's great. Nowhere that I've worked before has been the same. There's, yeah everybody is like best friends, there's no sort of drama, there's no ‘oh I don't like that person’, everyone's just so friendly, and so nice. If you're having a bad day, anyone, someone will come up to you and ask if you're alright, it's definitely friends for life.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Is there a moment, or a particular call that has stayed with you?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - A few. I've definitely had a bit of everything, but yeah there's, one in particular.
There was, I was just out of Grad Bay, just out of training, and there was a woman who called saying that she wasn't having the best time, she'd been in the hospital for her mental health, and she'd come out on day release, told them she was going to the shop to buy some cigarettes, and she hadn't. She laid down in the middle of the woods, it was quite a big woods, so no-one really knew where she was, she wasn't off of any sort of path, there was no tracks to try and find her, and she was so distraught, she changed her mind and she wanted to go back to the hospital, she wanted to get some help, and she went quiet for about half an hour and, we thought the worst, and it took us over an hour to find her. In the end we had drones out, there was dogs out, there was yeah, I think there was about nine patrols out looking for her.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Blimey and part of your role is that you stayed on the phone the whole time.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Oh yeah, I stayed on the phone the whole time. Yeah, the whole time I stayed on the phone with her.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – and how did that get resolved, was she okay?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Yeah, she was okay. We found her, and then she went to the hospital, and she was okay.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – and you were well supported after that as well. That's something that stayed with you.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Yeah all throughout the call there was people wandering around checking on me, making sure that I was okay ‘cause I, we all thought the worst but, yeah, no, definitely the support was there.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – So can you tell me about what makes you feel really proud in your career?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Just to say that I'm part of Kent Police. It's a big achievement, not everybody can say that. You know, it could be a lifetime career, and starting so young as well, I was only 18, when I started, so, to say that I've been working with Kent Police since I was 18, it's great!
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Do you know what your career ambitions for the future are?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - As far as I can go, really. I don't know potentially an officer next or, dispatch, potentially. I think the next intake for that is in September. So yeah, as far as I can go within Kent Police really.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – You're keeping your options open, either PSE (police staff employee) or officer.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Yeah.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – It's nice isn't it ‘cause you got that much opportunity open to you, that you can.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - There's so many doors open once you're in, you're in. You can go anywhere really.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Yeah, no couldn’t agree more. As I said to you before we started the podcast, it's about a foot in the door sometimes and then once you're in, the opportunities are open to you.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - There's a lot of opportunities within the force control room as well. So, I've been there 18 months now, but I've been trained on switchboard, which is 101 option three, so they sort of take officer messages, pass messages across, update reports, that kind of thing, and I've also done my live chat training as well, which is the online facility, and so it's almost like a chat bot almost, but it's not a robot on the other side, it's one of us. So, I've done that as well, and I think I've been put forward to do my admin training as well, but you can also go to the team leader or the team manager once you've done the team leader. There's our Learning and Development programme. I know they take a lot of people on, just to give them some extra experience opportunities and all sorts of things like that, and that's just within the control room.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Fantastic, so 18 months on and actually you're still learning new things, being put forward for new things.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - [Nodding]. Yeah, every day.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – You also just touched on training there so, could you tell us a little bit about what the kind of initial training is for yourself in the force control room?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - So, it's eight weeks of training, that's four weeks of classroom training so, learning sort of the basics the law side of it, the systems that we use, the sort of how to speak to the public in what situations and things like that, and then it is four weeks of Grad Bay, and Grad Bay is sort of, when you graduate, and go out onto the floor within your team and start taking the calls, and so that's for four weeks, but out of two of those weeks, you go live, which is basically when you start taking the calls. So, I think they sort of gradually put you from 101s on to 999s, as a one-to-one with a coach with you, so that if you do struggle you don't really know what you're doing you've got that support for them to help you and sort of point you in the right direction.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – and actually, again leads me very nicely on to the next question in terms of, bearing in mind you know it is, sometimes a very stressful role, it's a busy role, but how do you manage that kind of all-important home life, work life balance?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Quite easily. Working sort of shift patterns, you'd think it'd be quite difficult because you don't, it's not a Monday to Friday 8 till 5, you don't always get weekends off, you work public holidays, Christmas, New Year's, but it's actually quite easy because sometimes it's quite nice to just have a random day off in the week. There's no one really around you can go and do your errands, you can go to the shop and it's empty. So, it's actually quite nice to have those random days off that nobody else gets.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – and what some people might not know, is just how many different reporting mechanisms there are to get into the force control room, so could you talk us through how people can report into the force control room?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - So, there is quite a few. So, if there's sort of an immediate risk to life, something is ongoing now, that we need to get out to, that would be done on 999. If it's a non-emergency, so it could have happened earlier that day, or maybe the week before, 101 is fine or reporting it online. If you have access to the internet, sometimes it is easier to report it online ‘cause then it can go straight off to the right department, there's no delay in it being investigated if that's what it needs to be done, or there's also our live chat facility, which you can find on the Kent Police website and which comes through to us and we can take a report for you there.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – So now onto a bit of a, kind of quick-fire, off the cuff round just to get to know you a little bit more. So, firstly what is your go-to on shift snack?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Biscuits.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – and your favourite?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - The Fox's Viennese fingers.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Good choice.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - All time the one with the chocolate in the middle, all-time favourite.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – that is specific, that is [laughing] fantastic. Secondly, if you were a superhero what would your superpower be?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - To fly, or to teleport ‘cause I'd never have to sit in traffic again.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – True, I mean flying is definitely one of the more popular ones, [laughing] but I absolutely love the idea of skipping traffic, yep, I'd have to agree with that one.
Number three, if you could choose any celebrity to join you on a shift, who would it be and why?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Adam Sandler, just the morale,
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Interesting
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - It would be great, the jokes, just everything, and he reminds me of my dad as well.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Okay, so do you think your dad would be good, on shift?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - No. [Laughing].
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Fair enough, and lastly what's one thing that you wish the public knew about the role of a contact handler?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - We're not robots, we're not an automated voice message on the other end of the phone, we have feelings, we don't like to be shouted at the same as everybody else.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – What advice would you give someone who is thinking about joining Kent Police as a contact handler?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Go for it! Jump right in, do it, you won't regret it.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – and any kind of personality traits you think, the people would suit to the role?
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Friendly, chatty, [laughing] but also strong willed, ‘cause you have to be quite strong for some of the stuff that we deal with, but if you're not the most strong willed there's always that support circle so just no matter what, where you come from your background, do it.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Just a huge thank you to you today, Bethani for your time. You know it's clear that you're, you know really passionate about the role, and serving the public, and I think for me it's actually really lovely to hear about the camaraderie, in particular, so thank you very much.
Contact handler Bethani Fomes - Thank you for having me.
Samantha Matthews, Child Centred Policing Manager – Thank you for listening. If you have enjoyed this episode, follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook and LinkedIn where we'll be posting previews of our upcoming episodes. Don't forget you can watch this episode by subscribing to our YouTube channel and find out more about the variety of career opportunities available by searching Kent Police careers.
See you soon. [Music].