Forgotten First Responders

When I started calling 911 Dispatcher the forgotten first responders, I was surprised at the quizzical looks I would get. In some instances there even seemed to be some hostility which I wanted to clarify because it seemed so misplaced. What I found was so many of us in the helping fields go unrecognized for the work that we do, both externally and internally. We don’t go looking for accolades; we just do our work to the best of our ability. Sometimes praise comes in and usually this is so uncommon that it causes a stir. There’s a good feeling with it, but it’s definitely not typical. But pushing the forgotten first responder label is not about 911 Dispatchers looking for pats on the back. We don’t need attention or atta boys. What is meant by the term and what most of us want is just to be noticed at all. To just be recognized as first responders and granted the acknowledgement of all the issues that come with working emergency scenes day in and day out. We might not be out in the field, but we are there on-scene with every call and radio transmission that we take. Throughout my research I have been told story after story of being forgotten. Here are just a few examples of us being invisible.

Just go car to car

One late morning, a 911 Dispatcher came in for her shift. She would be the second of two that day with the first having come in early that morning to relieve night shift. When my interviewee entered the radio room, she realized that something was off. The lights were off and it was quiet-no indication of movement. After flipping on the lights, she realized why things were so strange-the morning dispatcher wasn’t there. The night dispatcher wasn’t either so she obviously had gone home (that’s another issue and a story of its own). It had been four hours since shift change. Not knowing what was going on, she called the field and the response she received was incredible. The patrol sergeant just stated that the radio room had stopped responding to them. Eventually they all just started going car to car and had been doing that since. She asked if anyone had called the radio room to see what was going on. His response was no. She was floored. They had just continued on without dispatch. No one even stopped to see if maybe there was a medical problem or some other emergency. Apparently no one cared enough to check; their 911 Dispatchers so invisible that even when they disappear no one really pays attention.

A bombing next door

Recently I heard a 911 Dispatcher tell about a bomb going off in their small town social security office. The building was right next door to communications and it shook the room the two dispatchers were working in. The incident ended up in a man-hunt leading to the capture of the bombing suspect near-by. During the increasingly long event these two continued to handle all the 911 calls and the radio traffic including working the multi-jurisdictional man-hunt. They watched as the employees from the other building were brought into theirs and their basic needs met-food, water, bathroom breaks. These two just kept working. No one came to relieve them or ask them if they were physically okay or needed anything. They were in the same building as the relief efforts for everyone else including the officers working the man-hunt. When it was all over, they continued working until their relief arrived. Then they hung up their head sets and went home.

A colleague and friend

On Christmas Eve morning in 2012, a man deliberately set his mother’s house on fire and then waited for the fire department to arrive. Webster, New York is covered by a volunteer department and two of the fire fighters that arrived had day jobs in public safety-one was a police officer, the other a 911 Dispatcher. Both were killed when the man opened up on the fire truck on arrival. Another truck was stuck in the ambush with an injured fire fighter lying on the ground underneath. The event was handled by Monroe County Emergency Communications Center which is also where 19 year old Tomasz Kaczowka worked. The 911 Dispatchers handled an enormous amount of chaos that day including listening to the downed fire fighter continue to give updates and ask for an eta for police because he could feel himself bleeding to death trapped there. It was hours before everything was said and done, the scene safe and everyone who could still benefit from medical care receiving it. The communications center was stunned as they learned they had lost one of their own. In the coming weeks, Crisis Incident Stress Management (CISM) teams were out in force to help the traumatized fire fighters and officers, but not once did anyone mention communications. It took weeks before a team finally worked with the friends, colleagues and first responders at the center. I heard their director speak at an APCO conference last year and he said this is one of his greatest mistakes and regrets.

So, when I use the term forgotten first responders it is not because we are looking for more recognition or to gain attention. We just want to be remembered as existing and the fact that we also feel the pain of being first responders. Here are three simple ways to help:

Stop in and say hi. Remember we exist. Come say hello and let us know that you notice we are there. This goes for higher ups in communications management as well.
Remember us in policies. Make sure your agency has policies that reflect the reality of the impact of first response work on your 911 Dispatchers including having them included in Peer Support Programs and CISM.
Include them in public events. An essential part of the public safety team, make sure that they are included in things like public education and job fairs.

Help us lose the term forgotten.