“Paris 9-1-1, what is the location of your emergency?”
Paris Police Chief Bob Hundley
That phrase is repeated about 28,000 times each year by dispatchers with the Paris police Department communications division.
April 14th through the 20th is National Telecommunications Week, and I’d like to take just a moment to tell you how fortunate we are to have people who will repeat that phrase so many times in our department.
Our dispatchers work strange shift hours, weekends of course, all holidays, and are ready to help our citizens 24 x 7. They are always the first ‘first responder‘ on the scene and what they say and do affects that call for service from the beginning to the end regardless if it is a police, fire or EMS call.
They work according to call load time. There is never less than 2 on duty at one time and 4 at peak times. Our 13 dispatchers combined for a little over 73,000 calls for service in 2012.
They literally can have lives in their hands when they answer, not only the 9-1-1 lines, as you would be surprised about what emergency calls which come in on the regular administrative phone lines. When either the 9-1-1 line or an administrative line starts ringing, they never know what is going to be on the other side of the conversation.
They work in a tough environment. Dispatchers hear the frustration of family problems that have been brewing for many years, in which the caller decided today is the day that the dispatcher needs to get it fixed.
They have listened to people who have a family member or at the worst, a child, who has been gravely injured or is dying. They have talked to people who are suicidal into putting the gun down. They have negotiated a suspect surrender long before the hostage negotiator is even called.
Not by choice, but when the call comes in, what is being reported can be happening right then. They are ‘live’ on the call and what they say and do is so important. They suffer after the ‘bad’ calls and are upset when loss of life takes place. Everything they say is recorded so that a split second decision can be second guessed for years. They have to communicate in a two dimensional manner only with words and voice inflection, not as it is when you are face to face. Assumptions and misunderstandings can happen easily when the caller is upset, emotional, scared or injured.
Dispatchers have to be assertive at times to get the information needed and this results in aggravation for the caller.
It is not unusual to see a dispatcher taking a 9-1-1 call, talking with the caller, the responding units, and other agencies, all while keying in the information into the computer assisted dispatch software.
Talk about multi-tasking, these folks invented it. Dispatchers get information from callers that result in officer safety being enhanced, aiding in the capture of suspects, giving pre-arrival medical instructions, and making sure that everyone is out of the house if there is a fire. We don’t have a dispatcher on duty who has not provided instructions for someone to do CPR over the telephone.
Our dispatchers include Kathy, Tony, Julia, Tammy, Anita, Kelly, Deneen, Jennifer, Kris, Candice, Angie, Robin and Dawn.
Please accept our public and sincere thanks for doing what you do every shift.
– by Paris Police Chief Bob Hundley