Back Office

Without a Back Office we wouldn’t know who’d been arrested and therefore which police station they’d been taken to, or be able to offer the arrestee the support they need for the rest of their journey, for example Court Support and financial support. During an action we have people, like you, on rota offering support. The majority of this work is done remotely from home.

Supporting arrestees is an amazing feeling and being a part of Back Office is a way to be directly involved. It’s a great way to take action if you need to work from home or aren’t in a position to put yourself forward for arrest. We will train you and offer you as much support as you need.

The work includes taking calls from arrestees in police stations and rebels on the ground reporting arrests. This information is recorded in a database. We then do call-outs for rebels on the ground to support arrestees from the moment they’re released from the police station. We also take calls from friends and family of arrestees, reports of police misbehaviour and pass on legal questions to the Legal circle.

A&LS Back Office is staffed by volunteers under the supervision of members of the A&LS BO team. The supervisor is known as the Back Office Coordinator and is the volunteers’ point of contact for enquiries during a shift. There are two main volunteer roles:

• Back Office Volunteer - takes calls using XR’s online switchboard and usually works in shifts of 3 or 6 hours. At busy times several may be on shift together so the workload will be shared.
• Police Station Support Coordinator - ensures arrested rebels are met on release by Police Station Supporters. They send call-outs to the on-the-ground Police Station Supporters who, if they can offer support outside a police station, will then be added to a rota. The Police Station Support Coordinator manages the rota by liaising with the Police Station Supporters.

If you are interested in these roles, email backoffice@riseup.net