Today, Morris Corbett will hang up his headset in Dingwall Operations Centre for the last time, where his career with Northern Constabulary began over 28 years ago.
Morris, who is originally from Dingwall, started his working life with Northern Constabulary in 1981 spending the majority of his career in Dingwall, serving in Inverness for the last three years.
Taking all local calls and a great number of 999 emergency calls, control room staff are under immense pressure when they are often the first point of contact with members of the public when they are in times of need.
Having this daily pressure requires great communication skills in order to manage calls sensitively whilst at the same time deploying resources to the public’s aid.
Bringing a wealth of local knowledge of the area to the job, Morris commented:
“Knowing the area you work in has always been vitally important to the job as it means you are able to direct officers to incidents that little bit quicker, which can make all the difference."
When talking of his most memorable incidents he had encountered, Morris said:
"One story in particular that sticks out was when a local woman had heard about a drunk driver in her local area and called the control room to tell us that the car was where it was described as being but the driver was two houses down, hiding behind a bush.
This is just one example of when then public have stepped up and helped with operational incidents."
One of Morris' most commendable moments in his career was when he managed to keep a female threatening suicide on the phone for one and a half hours until the nearest officers reached her.
Morris added:
"There are so many things I will miss about the job, mostly the fellow staff and officers not to mention the public, who I've spoken to nearly every day for the last 28 years.
"I will miss the job, but I have to say the first thing I'll be doing tonight is disconnecting my phone!"
Head of Force Operations Centre, Inspector Neil MacKinnon said:
“Giving the length of time he has worked for Northern Constabulary, the reality is that Morris will have helped a huge number of people in times of need through his professional, reassuring and sometimes humorous approach when dealing with calls from the public and ensuring that an appropriate response was being provided to them.”