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The man dialled 999 for assistance one early morning in June, and officers were looking for him, but he refused to reveal his location.
Fortunately, the man, who was having a medical episode, was contacted by Amber from the Force Control Room, who kept him calm and tried to persuade him to begin walking home. She assured him that she would remain on the phone with him throughout his journey.
He ended the phone call at least twice, but Amber called him right back and spoke with him for over an hour. She talked to him about everything to distract him from hurting himself, all the while listening for police sirens in the background to alert patrols if they were approaching his location.
She was eventually able to pinpoint his location and direct officers directly to him. She persuaded him to approach the cops and stayed on the phone with him throughout his ordeal.
The man later expressed gratitude to officers for Amber’s assistance.
‘Amber has demonstrated excellent skills by quickly assessing the risks and using her initiative to build a rapport with someone who was in desperate need of assistance,’ said Amber’s manager, Simon Hardware. Her knowledge and intervention prevented him from doing something that could have been fatal.’ Managing situations like this one under pressure is not easy, and while our call handlers are trained for such situations, it is critical that we recognise when our employees perform extraordinary work like this. Her actions were also praised by the sergeant with whom she spoke on the phone and who arrived on the scene. He stated that he has previously worked with Amber during incidents and that she always does an excellent job.’