As families wake up to presents under the tree this Christmas Day, Nottinghamshire Police emergency call handler Ben Garrod will already be at his desk answering calls and keeping the public safe. Ben, who has been a call handler for 18 months, will be working his first full Christmas Day, picking up the phone to help and support people in need. He is part of a dedicated team working from the force’s state-of-the-art control room as a first point of contact taking 101 and 999 calls. Twenty-four-year-old Ben said: “In some ways it will be just like a normal day for us. We are away from our families but we are a close-knit team so it is just like having a surrogate family for the day. “I’m expecting it to be a jovial atmosphere and we are all there because we enjoy helping people. So Christmas Day is no different to any other shift in that sense.” Ben worked over New Year last year – when call handlers in the control room had clocked up 400 incidents by 7am on New Year’s Day. “It was quite crazy,” he said. “On an average day we’d have had about 80 incidents by that point so it was hectic. But we had a buffet between us and it was a great atmosphere.” Prior to joining the force, Ben was an apprentice at Rolls-Royce in Derby. He says working for the police had always appealed to him and the control room has proved perfect for his skillset. “You definitely need to be calm under pressure, have the ability to think on your feet and be decisive,” he said. “If anyone is thinking of giving it a go I’d definitely encourage them to take the plunge. “Being a call handler is all about listening to callers, understanding how they’re feeling and then being able to offer support and explain how we can help them. “You get a huge range of calls. From the serious calls that will make the evening news to the inappropriate 999 calls such as a man wanting to know if his lottery ticket was a winner, we definitely take it all!” “There’s a lot of variety and we receive calls from people from all different backgrounds who need our help. You need to be a good communicator and listener and be able to empathise with callers. Every call and situation we deal with is something different.”