IRT

I’m on IRT (Initial Response Team) today. Does this mean sitting around all day waiting for a call?

Well yes and no.

On one hand you are limited to what you can do, basically you need to be within 5 minutes of the station, so no bike rides, walks, kayaking or beer in the pub garden. On the other hand you try and get on with life; you can’t sit round waiting for something that might not happen, to happen….if that makes sense.

Yesterday we had a call to a missing child, naturally to minimise risk to the child we deploy quickly. Three guys on station within 3 minutes; on this occasion we were stood down as the child was thankfully found.

We work on an unofficial rota with team members taking turns on two shifts 7.00am to 19:00 and then 19:00 to 07:00. So someone’s on call 24/7 365 days a year.