Control Room Week Case Study - Bev

Bev, 47, joined the force 19 years ago. Since starting as a PC in Lichfield, progressing to become a Sergeant in Tamworth and becoming an Inspector in 2014, she trained as a tactical firearms commander before a happy surprise led her to take up her current post as Force Incident Manager around six years ago.

She said: “After the first day on the tactical firearms commander course, I actually found out I was pregnant, so I couldn’t go out on operations and moved into the Control Room up to my maternity leave and have stayed here ever since.”

Bev’s day-to-day job involves dealing with incidents that pose a threat to the public and protect them and other officers from that risk. This means she may be called to deploy officers to anything from an individual posing a suicide risk, to crimes involving weapons and firearms.

“I can’t say it’s not exciting, it is; the adrenaline is going when you have an incident you’re dealing with, but at the back of my mind always is how best to protect the public and colleagues and reduce that threat.

“There’s definitely a buzz in the room when we have an incident like that and everyone works together to provide up-to-date information and intelligence so that I can pass that on straight away to the teams on the ground.

“I’m lucky to have such a fantastic team behind me – the firearms officers are such true professionals – I may make one tactical decision but then they can see the situation on the ground and decide to go down a another route – and we trust each other to do that.”

“The best part of my job is knowing that, at the end of each day, I have done 100 percent as much as I can to reduce the threat of harm to others.”

Since the coronavirus pandemic, Bev’s role in the maintaining public order team may see her called out to protests or gatherings.

“Everyone has a right to protest,” she said, “It’s just our job to ensure it is peaceful and legal – and that goes for social gatherings too especially during covid.”

Bev’s time at work might be varied and adrenaline-filled, but her home life is just as busy. Juggling married life with studying for a Masters degree and looking after a five-year-old means she doesn’t have much time to relax.

“At lot of home life is full of silly stuff like dressing up, playing, but when I do get time to, I love to go on a run.

“I’m Staffordshire born-and-bred and love the county, the communities and the people and am proud to call it my home.”