A couple of things. First, I’m really glad that the #IAM911 movement is still going strong. Second, no matter how many years it has been since I broadcast my last transmission, people still want to know what it was like when they find out I was a 911 Dispatcher. We are definitely the first first responders and most of the time the forgotten first responders. I wonder how much of that is because people truly have no idea what it is that we do for all those hours, many times in the windowless basement of some public safety building somewhere. One of the questions I’ve asked 911 Dispatchers over the years is how they would describe their job. The answers have been funny and sad. Funny because the descriptions are vivid and often painted with the dark humor typical of those in the field. Sad because they also reflect an understanding of the lack of understanding and respect the hard working men and women under the headset deserve. What do 911 Dispatchers do?
“Police Delivery Guy”
Every Public Safety Communications Center is a bit different. Each has a particular role to play decided on by their community. Some have one center where employees answer 911 calls and dispatch police, fire and EMS. Some even answer non-emergency public safety calls. Others add in public works, utilities and/or animal control. Some throw the dispatching of these other services in as well. If there was some random service that needed 24 hour coverage in some way, often it was dropped in the lap of communications. In some areas, dispatch and 911 are separate with employees doing one or the other. Sometimes during less busy hours they will consolidate back to one person doing both. There are also areas that have a primary Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) and a secondary PSAP. Many times college towns will have both with the university hosting the secondary. To add even more complication into the mix is ownership of the center. Most are government owned with public safety oversight. Some are small municipal centers and some are giant, consolidated, regional centers. Even in the mix of all these configurations, some centers dispatch only one discipline, such as police while another does fire/EMS. The center I worked for was a large metropolitan communications center overseen by the police department. We had a 911 side that answered 911 and non-emergency police calls and a dispatch side which handled the police radio. It was a colleague of mine that described his job as, “a police delivery guy.”
Chaos, Crisis and Stupidity Management
Sit in any Communications Center and you will soon figure out that the mass majority of what 911 Dispatchers do is situational management. We never know what is coming down the pipe when our headset beeps or an officer clears. It can be routine, a situation we’ve handled a million times before or it can be an unusual scenario making our brains swirl trying to locate an appropriate solution. It can also be an adrenaline kicking, heart stopping tragedy. No matter the situation, we have one job—Act. We don’t have the luxury of hesitation, ever. Lives depend on us tucking away our normal human reactions and moving forward no matter what the circumstances. No matter what our physical, mental or emotional chemistry is doing inside us. We must be calm. We must sound confident and in control. We must do the things that need to be done in the moment. We can fall apart later, but not now. Never now. As callous as it may sound, a county sheriff’s dispatcher described his work as, “chaos, crisis and stupidity management.”
Technology Wrangler
Just walk into any Communications Center, but especially a larger one and the shear amount of technology will blow your mind. Each 911 Dispatcher sits at a console with five to seven screens each running an operating system that could have dozens of windows popped up. Computers run the phone, mapping, radio, tracking systems and hundreds of databases. The man or woman sitting in front of all of it has to know not only how to use it on its best days, but also how to troubleshoot it and work around it on its worst days. This is one of those areas where people outside public safety truly do not understand what happens within it. Community members expect that the technology we use within the center would have the same robustness and capabilities that their personal tech has, if not better. Unfortunately, this is nowhere near the case. Due to “fiscal stewardship” most centers work with stripped down, often incompatible systems. Many are outdated before they ever get up and running. These systems rarely work with neighboring jurisdictions let alone regionally. With the focus on FirstNet and NG911, I’m hopeful the financial backing and technological advances will finally bring 911 Dispatch into this century and not just the big centers, but everyone tasked with public safety.
Space Holder
A 911 Dispatcher does so many things, but the one which often goes most unheralded is the one which is most important. One someone’s worst day, they are there. They are the comforting voice on the other end of the line. They are the one who is connecting with another human in pain. They are holding space before the field units arrive. To me, this is the most important aspect of #IAM911. All the stories of tragedy have one thing in common—a 911 Dispatcher was there. When someone reached out, a 911 Dispatcher grabbed their hand and held it for as long as it took. When field responders got there, they disconnected and immediately reached out their hand again to the next person. Over and over in cities across the nation and the world. This is the heart of what 911 Dispatchers do. This is what separates them from phone operators and secretaries. This constant comfort, this steady hand is unique to this line of work. It makes what we do special and invaluable. It is who we are. #IAM911.
Michelle Perin
Michelle Perin has been a freelance writer since 2000. In December 2010, she earned her Master’s degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Indiana State University.
