Viewers praise police as they race to find girl on Call The Cops

Viewers praise ‘unsung hero’ control room staff who helped police track down a suicidal 13-year-old girl during a tense six-hour hunt on Call The Cops

• Viewers were stunned as police raced to save a young teen on Call The Cops 
• Ellie Howard, 13, from Devon, told mother she wanted to jump off Tamar Bridge 
• Officers spend six hours hunting Ellie down in a race against time to help her
• End up locating her after she sends photographs of a bridge to control room 
• One viewer said: ‘Call handlers and control room staff. Unsung heros’  

Viewers were left as they watched police race against time to find a 13-year-old girl who said she wanted to kill herself on last night’s episode of Channel 4’s Call The Cops.

Ellie Howard, 13, from Devon, told her mother she wanted to jump off 100 foot Tamar Bridge before disappearing.

The dedicated police team spent six hours hunting Ellie down, with several response units searching the area for her, and others speaking to her on the phone from the control room. 

Many of those watching praised the work of control room staff member Rachel, who regularly spoke to Ellie on the phone and helped to track her down.  

Police were able to locate Ellie after control room staff managed to speak to her on the phone, and listened to background noise to determine her location 

One said: ‘Call handlers and control room staff. Unsung and absolute heroes.’ 

Another deemed Rachel a ‘legend’ for her work, saying that she’d ‘dealt with Ellie with such patience and care’. 

Viewers watched as police responded to a call from Ellie Howard, a 13-year-old, who told relatives she was going to jump off Tamar bridge, which separates Cornwall and Devon. 

One of the members of control staff, Rachel, told other members of staff: ‘We’ve got a high risk missing person who is 13-years-old. 

Viewers praised the ‘unsung heros’ of the control room as they watched police responder Rachel (pictured) help to track down a 13-year-old girl who said she wanted to kill herself 

Many took to Twitter to praise the control room staff and Rachel for their efforts, with one deeming her ‘a legend’ for her help to find the girl 

‘She has texted to say she’s going to go and jump off the Tamar. She’s been assessed already, she’s high-risk as a person.’ 

PCs Tony and Connor  were dispatched to search the approach to the bridge, while another team are sent to search below the bridge.

Rachel explained: ‘When I first joined the control room, if we had one high-risk missing person, that was extreme. Now we have three or four at the same time.’

But minutes after being sent to locate Ellie, Tony and Connor were diverted elsewhere to try to another case, leaving resources depleted.  

Rachel was a key-part of the team working to locate Ellie, who had told her mother she planned to jump from Tamar Bridge 

Having dispatched half of the response officers without success, the team called her over the phone to see if they’re able to contact her.

Rachel called her, saying: ‘Ellie can you hear me? I know you may not feel like talking but I’m here to listen. Can you just tap the handset if you can hear me?’ 

But after Rachel said her family were worried about her, Ellie put the phone down.  

Discussing the search, Rachel explained the challenges of the area: ‘Missing people are very, very resource intensive.

Rachel and the police team spent six hours searching for Ellie, with the police control staff regularly speaking to her in an attempt to find her  

‘We are surrounded by water, there’s lots of places they could head towards so its very difficult to find them.’

After an hour, there had been no sightings of Ellie, so officers widened the search, while staff in the control room tried to contact her via social  media and on the phone. 

And Rachel managed to get through to Ellie, but the schoolgirl continued to refused to say where she was. 

While Rachel told her she was ‘really worried’ about her, Ellie said: ‘Don’t send anyone, I just want to be left alone.’

Police staff in the control room dispatched additional teams to search on the ground for Ellie, but struggled to locate the missing vulnerable teenager 

Meanwhile the officer begged her to tell her where she was, saying: ‘The thing is, you’ve got an awful lot of people who are very worried about you because of what you’ve said. I don’t want you to kill yourself.’ 

But the teenager insisted ‘well I do’, before going on to claim that she didn’t have any friends, and insisting she was ‘fine’.

While Rachel kept the young girl talking, other members of control room staff were able to hear seagulls and children playing in the background, giving them hints and clues as to where she could be. 

But despite begging her to reveal her location, the teenager refused to tell them.

While Rachel spoke to Ellie, other members of staff were able to help pinpoint her potential location based on noises in the background, including seagulls and children playing

After the conversation, the team no longer thought her life was in danger, and downgraded her to a non-immediate risk. 

Rachel explained: ‘Very often we’ll speak to people who are in crisis who will endanger but don’t want to be found yet because they want attention and they want time. And time is resources.

‘And in the nicest possible way, we do not have the resources.’  

However it wasn’t not long before her mother got back in touch with the police again, revealing that Ellie had sent photographs of herself on the Tamar bridge. 

Police used maps of the area underneath the bridge as they searched for the missing teenager, who continued to send worrying messages to her mother while she was missing 

Growing concerned once again, police upgraded her case to immediate risk, and desperately tried to find her.

She went on to send photographs of a different, low-level, bridge, which police were able to identify.

In a last ditch attempt to find the teenager, Rachel called her back, saying: ‘Ellie? It’s Rachel. I’m calling you as I promised I would. Where abouts are you at the moment?’

The teenager admitted where she was, revealing she was opposite a bank on the high street and the police were able to locate her.

The missing teenager sent photographs through to police indicating her location, including one from a low-level bridge 

While they waited for an officer to meet her, Rachel continued to chat to her, saying: ‘Are you feeling a bit calmer now? Good.’ 

In total, the police spent six hours helping Ellie and getting her to safety.  

Viewers were left stunned by the show’s storyline, with many deeming it ‘heartbreaking’ to watch.

Rachel continued to speak to the teenager having located her, and waited with her on the line while an officer went meet her 

One tweeted: ‘Excellent series. Shocking and heartbreaking. So sad to see our emergency services so drastically under resourced and under funded. Tonight’s show was very emotional.’

Another added: ‘How absolutely heartbreaking. How can the govt and us (public) think that leaving Police to deal with mental health a good thing? They need help and resources. NOW #CallTheCops’

Another wrote: ‘Heartbreaking scenes on Channel 4 from my hometown tonight. So many mental health cases & not enough support out there. #channel4.’    

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