Life in the Control Room: Tim Dixon

Tim has been a command and control operator since 2019 and started his journey in the Control Room as a contact management operator. Having been a police cadet and a special constable, he decided to work in the Control Room as a stepping stone to becoming a response officer, but enjoyed the job so much that he stayed on to eventually become a command and control operator.

This is his story.

“I have been a command and control operator in the Force Control Room for about four and a half years now. I was a police cadet and also worked as a special constable, then a contact management operator before taking on my current role.

I wanted to be a response police officer, but I wanted to see what was open and decided to go for the contact management operator role as a stepping stone. I had friends who worked in the Control Room, and they gave me some insight into what it’s like working here so I decided to go for it.

I enjoyed working in the Control Room so much that I didn’t want to leave and stayed on, working as a contact management operator for a year and a half before eventually working my way up to a command and control operator.

A normal day for me would be going through a list of the un-resourced jobs, see what the actions are from the night before or from a handover and see what police officer’s availability is like so we can send them to incidents. Throughout the day, I check the list to see how incidents can be dealt with in different ways.

It’s a lot of prioritising and managing incidents and a lot of multi-tasking, which is a key skill in being a command and control operator. You worry when you send officers to different jobs because they might get assaulted and it’s hard not to blame yourself in that situation, but it also doesn’t mean it’s your fault when that happens

It’s a stressful job, but knowing you’ve made a difference to someone in need is a great feeling.

I use the drive home to de-stress and speak to colleagues who become like your second family when you’re working here. To cope with bigger, more serious incidents, I try my best to not get too attached.

Any person thinking of joining will need to prepare themselves to deal with the 5% of bad jobs that come in. You need to develop a tough skin because you will see and read about unpleasant things. You have to be empathetic, but also know how to compartmentalise to be able to deal with the next job. It’s something you will learn more about when you work in the Control Room.

Unfortunately, there will be horrible incidents, such as sexual assaults to both adults and children, serious collisions where someone will lose their life or domestic assaults with abuse that has been going on for years which hasn’t been reported. It’s not a daily occurrence, but they do and will happen, so you have to be ready to deal with them.

I came into this job knowing what the shift pattern was like, so I didn’t mind it. I grew to like it eventually. You might miss family events, but I’ve grown to adapt to them, and we celebrate things on different days instead.

I think the shift pattern of working four days followed by four rest days is a big perk to working here because you can plan things in advance. There is also something great about finishing work at 7am, driving home and seeing everyone else going in the opposite direction going to work when you know you are going home to bed.

Another perk is the progression, and while I’ve got no immediate plans for the Supervisor role, it’s good to know the support is there if I want to do it.

You can get put through different courses, like first-aid training which I’ve done and there’s also the option of becoming a tutor so you can pass on what you know to the next team coming in. There’s a bit more to being a Contact Control Operator than you think, and you could branch out a bit if you wanted to.

I think a lot of people have this idea of what it’ll be like to work here, or they see it on TV and think that that’s how it’s going to be. I would say, take that with a pinch of salt, because it’s not as glamorous as they make it out to be on TV.”