This week is International Control Room Week, so we've been getting a behind-the-scenes look at ours.
Today we're hearing from Sergeant Lee Wright.
He's one of the Forces Incident Managers, and has been telling Amy Griffiths more about the role:
Manx Newscast
Manx Newscast: International Control Room Week part 4
Hi there, I'm Amy Griffiths and I'm one of the journalists in Manx Radio's Newsroom and you're listening to Newscast. Hi, I'm Sergeant Lee Wright, I'm one of the Force Incident Managers or PHIMs, as we call it, in the emergency services joint control room. So it's my job to review and manage all risk on any cause that come into the control room and then sort of decide what deployment, what response we give it from a police perspective. So any cause for the police come through the control room and it's the PHIMs job to review those jobs and manage that risk and decide if it's an emergency response or if it can be dealt with over the phone call, etc, etc. You're one of five people doing the role and there's always somebody sat in that seat. So just how important is that? Yeah, so he said, so it's the main point of call for the police and someone has to manage the role, the risk that comes with when people call in for the police as people call this for all sorts of things. So it's very important that there is almost a gatekeeper to review that and make sure that the appropriate response is given to the call that's coming in. As such, that's why there's always someone in the control room. So there's five PHIMs and that's our call role, I'm one of the five and we're the full-time PHIMs, but if any of us are ever on the course or leave or something, then another sergeant will be parachuted into to cover the role. But everyone who's done it has had the appropriate training to be able to sit in that seat. And can it sometimes be challenging when there's multiple calls and you're trying to work out, which is the bigger priority and who to send where based on the resources that you have? Can it be difficult juggling that sometimes? Yes, there is, you do spend a lot of plates in there because multiple jobs can come in at the same time and it is, as I said, you've got to just review what's needed, how urgent that response is and grade them accordingly and then make sure that the right resources are dispatched to the jobs at the right time. So how do you do that grading process? What kind of things are you looking for? So we have a it's whether it's emergency response, which means people need to get there right now or then we will look at something is, is there managing the threat of risk? Is it ongoing there? Is there ongoing risk of harm? If not, then it can be a delayed response. So then we might have, is police still need to attend, but they don't need to go on blues and twos, or then there may be things that people have just calling for advice or just to report, sort of matters to us. They can then be dealt with over the phone, either by a police officer or one of our first contact officers, which we have a work for the conservatory. So we sort of, as I said, it's that review process, manage it against the threat and risk and then decide sort of what response is needed from it. And how long have you been doing this route before? So I've been doing, I've only come back to this seat and I've only been here for two months now, but when I first got promoted, I did some time up in Nick, I was working custody and control then. So I did, it was about 12 to 18 months between here and the custody suite at headquarters here, but then they have been out of town, done a few other jobs, and I came back here two months ago. How do you find it? Did you prefer this side of things to sort of your maybe stereotypical side of policing or is it a bit of everything that you enjoy? It's different. It's, as you said, as you mean, stereotypical or sort of being out and doing that, it's different. It's still exciting. And yeah, it's good because it's an important role that you've got. So there's a lot of faith is brought into you to do this route. Do you find that you're constantly busy in here, I suppose, or is it a bit of a mix in terms of depending on the day? It does vary sort of between days of the week shift that you're on sort of late night, evenings overnight, maybe quieter than certain times of the day, but something can happen at any time. And that's the thing you can't guarantee that it's going to be busy and or it's going to be not so busy on different shifts that there is that a variety to it, which is good because you never know what the next call is going to be. So it is exciting. And when you first started doing the role, what would you say the biggest surprise for you was about it, the thing that sort of shocked you most about the role? As guests from doing the role, because we're sat in, it's not a police building that we're in, so we sort of guessed in the building because it's the communications division, it's their control room working, not with police staff, the FIM is the only member of police staff who's in the control room. And it's seeing how busy those guys are with not just assisting us with the police calls, but with the fire and ambulance, it's incredibly busy and they do a great job. So it's sort of opened your eyes in some ways to just how much goes on in here. Yeah, it does. Yeah, it's a busy little place. So I suppose in International Control Room week, then it's important to shout about those people and the role that is done every single day, 24 hours a day in that room. Yeah, it really is. They do a fantastic job they really do. And it's great to work alongside them. Thank you for making it to the end of the Manx Radio newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. May I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manx Radio podcasts at your favourite podcast provider. So our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone. Thank you. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]