What happens at an Enquiry Office?
Discover more about this exciting opportunity by watching our recruitment video: Make a Difference on the Front Line as an Enquiry Officer | Avon and Somerset Police
As an organisation we have 24 police stations where members of the public can meet and engage with us in person. At each of these we have individuals who offer front line support to the people who visit, these are our Enquiry Officers.
From the moment the doors open we never know who may come in; it could be someone looking to report the theft of an item, someone reporting a missing person or a victim of online fraud. They may also need to visit us as part of their sentencing conditions where they are required to present themselves to a police station to have documents verified and checked.
Our Enquiry Officers also see the not so nice side of the criminal world, it could sadly be someone who comes to report sexual assault, has witnessed suspicious activity or a hate crime.
What links all our Enquiry Officers together is the care, compassion and dedication they all show to the communities we serve and the individuals who visit us.
Hours – Part time working 22.2hrs per week.
Hours are Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, 10.00 – 18.00 at Burnham on Sea Police Station.
Key responsibilities:
* Act as the first point of contact to members of the public, visitors to the site, internal staff and external agencies
* Respond to, research and resolve enquiries face to face, over the phone and online
* Diffuse potentially volatile situations (both verbal and sometimes physical aggression) and escalate for police intervention in emergency situations
* Support vulnerable members of the public, including victims of crime
* Be sensitive to confidentiality and the need to protect individual privacy
About you
You will need to be comfortable with a rapidly changing day; you never know who is going to come through the door next and what help or support they will need.
In this role you are the front‑facing image of our organisation and will need to be always professional and calm.
You will need to have good IT skills to search, record and interpret information on a number of computer systems. We will provide full training on these systems so after the initial training period you can use them on a daily basis.
Our visitors have a wide range of backgrounds. If you speak another language or know sign language this is useful, but it is not essential.
If you have existing transferable skills from a customer‑service‑based role such as a hotel reception, this would be a good start, however we will provide full training either way.
In this role you will see people who may tell you things of a sad and distressing nature or may distrust the police, so you therefore need to be resilient to these situations.
This is such a rewarding job; our Enquiry Office teams can and do change so many outcomes for the better.
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