Working for the Police as a Communications Officer or Dispatcher

fufu_banterwaite

Has anyone here work or has worked for the Police as a Communications Officer or Dispatcher?

Communications Officers answer public and emergency calls and basically speak to them to try and ascertain the nature of the call and whether the caller can resolve the problem or whether a police response is needed.

Dispatchers assess, review and validate all the incidents received, monitor all incidents to which police have been deployed, conduct safety and background checks, etc.

My local force is recruiting both of these positions at the moment and I am thinking of applying.

spacey2012

Most positions are internally filled, they do very occasionally set on new people, pay is poor, job progression prospects are very poor and it's shift work.
Once the kudos of "you work for the police" wears off the poor pay will make you wish you had thought it out more carefully.

Buellguy

Applied twice and didn't get selected, you will have to attend a (IIRC) 1 hr quick brief once you have applied telling you about the job. Seem to remember for about 5 jobs there were over 600 people attending the briefs. If it's GMP I had a few problems with them PM me if you want details

fufu_banterwaite

My local force (Kent Police) have held three recruitments days already in January, March and May and have more planned this year they have told me. One of the things that attracts me to it is the fact it is shift work actually! That and the fact that your shift itself might be stressful, but once it is done you don’t take any work home with you.

I know my starting salary will be a big drop, but I’ve got a mate who does exactly the same job in Essex and he has told me what he is on now (albeit after a couple of years) and it is a decent wage – certainly something I could live on.

I’ve completed the pre-application questionnaire and hope to get the actual application pack soon!

PS - Spacey - I take it you used to do this? How long did you stick it out?

Tygermoth

I went to a day they had for 999 call handlers.

It was an all day interview and blimey they made it very stressful ( I would imagine to see how you handle stress)

Right from the beginning of the day they ramped up the stress level, sending us to wrong rooms. delaying tests then rushing us to others, saying we had missed out on tests and would fail when we had not. We were not sure if it was just badly run or part of thest, what made us think it was part of the interview process was the rider at the beginning of the day that you would be observed all day and how you dealt with the challenges presented to you.

and the final test was a three screen written test while taking 'live' calls, finding the correct registrations that were being read out in a wall of text which was the the same registration but in variants. Ie drv123pw then the text was rvd321wp and do on. but you were always searching one behind as the test was SO FAST.

there was 4 roles going and 900 applicants per role. They interviewed 20 for the roles.

the Chief came down and personally congratulated us for making it to the day (which was a very nice touch)

As it was I got offered a role for more money with less of a commute.

fufu_banterwaite

Thanks Tygermoth - did you take it?

olias

As an ex copper, I knew most of our dispatchers. It was not poorly paid at all. 15 years ago they were earning £18k to £25k with perks such as a good contributory pension, access to the police social club, gym etc.

There was also a great comradery and whilst (in our force at least) there was not a huge amount of career progression (The higher up positions were filled by police inspectors), several of our staff moved within the force, into scenes of crime, IT, CCTV, or even joined the police as officers.

Olias

fufu_banterwaite

Thanks Olias, what you have said is very much in line with what my friend said. The contributory pension is a good draw and I would imagine there is scope to move sideways at least rather than upwards (I’m not too bothered about career progression in all honesty).

amandada

I do the job now, as a dispatcher I take 999 as part of the role. If you take away all the political crap, it's a fantastic job-after 13 years I still love it. Yes it can be stressful, but it's momentary, once an incident is up and running, it's pretty formulaic.
The only thing I struggle with a bit is that there's no real room for original thought, if A happens, you do B etc.
Shifts have their advantages, but they also have their downside. I'm fed up missing out on events and time with my family, but that's a personal thing.

I'd love to know which force olias worked for, as full timers where I am are only on about £25k now, and that's with shift allowances!

Tiddlywinks

fufu_banterwaite wrote: »

My local force (Kent Police) have held three recruitments days already in January, March and May and have more planned this year they have told me. One of the things that attracts me to it is the fact it is shift work actually! That and the fact that your shift itself might be stressful, but once it is done you don’t take any work home with you.

I know my starting salary will be a big drop, but I’ve got a mate who does exactly the same job in Essex and he has told me what he is on now (albeit after a couple of years) and it is a decent wage – certainly something I could live on.

I’ve completed the pre-application questionnaire and hope to get the actual application pack soon!

PS - Spacey - I take it you used to do this? How long did you stick it out?

Hmm, I'm not sure about the bit in bold... it's sometimes not so easy to switch off from hearing first hand, for example, the screams of a woman being beaten by an abusive partner, the cries of a mum whose child is missing or a whole variety of other potential crimes in action.

Even the experienced will find it hard not to take the trauma away with them sometimes... I'm not saying that's a bad thing, just be aware of how dealing with distressed members of the public feels in reality - it's no picnic so go in with your eyes wide open.

olias

amandada wrote: »

I do the job now, as a dispatcher I take 999 as part of the role. If you take away all the political crap, it's a fantastic job-after 13 years I still love it. Yes it can be stressful, but it's momentary, once an incident is up and running, it's pretty formulaic.
The only thing I struggle with a bit is that there's no real room for original thought, if A happens, you do B etc.
Shifts have their advantages, but they also have their downside. I'm fed up missing out on events and time with my family, but that's a personal thing.

I'd love to know which force olias worked for, as full timers where I am are only on about £25k now, and that's with shift allowances!

Hi, it was one of the home counties force, so there was probably some sort of weighting in the salary.

Olias