There has been much talk about the importance of the job and following instructions of a police dispatcher. In small town USA, there are one or two, and in my case one dispatcher for a city police department per shift. This included answering the calls,phone in hand, other hand on radio and eyes fixed on computer screens.
The last time I held that position was 1990. A police dispatcher pretty much has to not get emotionally involved with the caller. One cannot perform their job if this happens.
They are the lifeline of information between emergency personnel and victims. In my day, everything was manually recorded. Every dispatch, action taken, and logged in. I worked second shift. Contrary to what some people believe, I think there is a connection to full moons and behavior. God help any dispatch or emergency crew on a full moon Friday or Saturday night. it could be visual is better, or it could really have something to do with our DNA's ..who knows? There are silly times with nonsense phone calls, there are tense times with severe emergencies and in my case what made me finally say, I am through with this was guilt. A dispatcher has to make split second decisions and follow through, no matter what. There is much training and testing to become a police dispatcher. You literally are holding people's lives including police officer's in your instruction or information. Too Little...people die.
One has to prioritize
as best they can all the paperwork and entering stolen vehicles and merchandise and typing police reports not to mention handling whatever appears at the dispatch windows from the public. Most of these practices have disappeared and communications are in a room alone but when I worked , you sure needed to know how to multitask.
On to the reason I turned in my notice. It was one of those Friday nights around 7 PM and as usual I was alone except for the in and out of a few officers
who dropped in and it was slow. That happened as well. Very boring, slow nights and then suddenly things popped at once. Things like traffic accidents, burglary, domestic, fires, nonsesne calls about Uncle John has come back from the dead to visit Aunt Susie can you send an officer ...( elderly who really should not be living alone). That kind of stuff would wear your nerves but the thing that happened that Friday made me quit. jump below the squiggly......
That particuliar night, most of the county officers and all but two city police were on seminars out of town. ( Perfect night for a robbery) but that is not what happened.
The officer working my shift was a delightful semi retired officer I will call JJ. He was about 74 and pretty laid back but was a good investigator. He had gone to eat a bite at his residence within the city limits and told me to call if anything happened. He would be out of pocket for about 50 minutes.
In that time period of working dispatch in small town USA, once you were at work and at your station, you were there..period. Unless someone came in to man the radio and phone that was qualified and certified, you were stuck.
Food was brought from home or an officer picked something up at McDonalds for you. Bathroom breaks could even be a challenge. One was completely surrounded by non bulletproof glass with a little talking hole you could speak through when people came into the station.
In some cities and counties this working environment is pretty much a thing of the past as now communication officers are locked away in a quite room out of sight but not when I was dispatching. Actually in many counties and city stations, the dispatcher still is enclosed in glass to talk to the public. The night started out slow around 7PM things changed.
About five people walked into the station arguing. I walked up to the window and said
"What's going on". They were all talking at once and loudly.
They were pointing fingers and notreally listening when I told them to sit down and an officer would speak with them in a few minutes to take their statements. I did not have but about three statement forms and that was the police officer's job to figure out who the complainant and victims were so I called JJ on the phone and said, "You might want to come back up here, I got a small domestic brewing here at the station." He said OK and that he would be there in a few. In the meantime I tried to reach another unit and the other office was on a traffic stop at the other side of the city. I called the county and they were tied up and could not come to the station.
JJ called in and said he was enroute back to the station when one of the yellers decided to out with a pocket knife. He had it open but was not threatning any one particuliar person. I opened my drawer slightly where a 38 was held.
I had made my decision right then if this guy tried to come into my space I would pull the gun out of the drawer. I would not reach for it to wave or calm. I stood up again without the weapon as it is still in the drawer ( and this time yelled at the people and said, "Calm down. Put the knife away and knock it off. You all are gonna go to jail for sure. I hit the button on the radio again and told JJ to hurry it was getting a little busy and he said , " OK..Almost there" and It was at this time I heard a huge crash. The arguing, yelling, people jump up and run to the windows. Well, their emergency seemed to be over. Mine was just beginning. I saw no lights and heard no sirens. I did see a police cruiser, a school bus full of kids
wrecked and I saw the police car slam into the concrete pole. I hit the radio and was asking for an ambulance and all units to respond to the station as we had an accident involving a bus and emergency police cruiser and possibly an officer down. This time I had all emergency vehicles enroute as I was logging times.
I switched the entire operation over to the county and grabbed paper and pencils as the people causing the disturbance are now on the outside looking. I yelled for them to start writing their statements down and instructed that not one had better leave the premises. I then locked the door to the police station except reception area and ran to the cruiser.
I saw JJ slumped over the steering wheel bleeding profusely as he said, " Are you OK, I tried to get here fast as I could". Blood dripping from his mouth and nose, The paramedicas were pulling up and I had on no gloves as tears were streaming down my face as I watched JJ drop into unconciousness with a steering wheel in his chest. I held his hand and his blood ran down my hand. The paramedics were pulling out middle school kids who were coming back from a band trip and the Fire Chief was saying to me over and over that I had to move and I had no gloves on. He was saying gently, " We got to get him outta here and you are unprotected health wise". I had tears in my eyes saying, "I'm sorry JJ.
I am so sorry. I told you to hurry and I told you it was getting busy. I am so sorry.
I saw the five people as I walked back into the station and I was so angry I could barely think straight, I said, " Don't move, Don't you dare, You people are going to write down everything that brought you here and YOU will include the knife incident.
Several county officers joined me in the dispatch area as I was still dropping a tear or two. I said , "Is he going to make it".. They didn't answer except for, don't know...won't know till we hear from the hospital, They said, "Do you know why JJ ran that light and didn't have sirens and lights on". I stared blankly and said, "It was my fault." He was trying to get to me. I don't know why he was not running code with lights and sirene but these people were fighting up here, verbally and one pulled out a knife. He didn't know that though. I then said I want them all to go to jail. I do. What they did caused me to hurry him up. Maybe they came in for a report but that is not what was going on.
The police chief then showed up as I glanced outside and saw 10 or 12 kids out on the grass and none hurt badly but scratched and bruised as more ambulances were arriving on the scene. I kept saying it is my fault. I told the chief I wanted to go to the hospital and he said No. You need to go home as you are too upset. That too made me angry but he was right.
All five were loaded into the police cars and booked for several charges. Disturbing the peace, one for assault with a deadly weapon, and whatever else they decided to book them on. The bottom line is JJ kept asking emergency crews in and out of consciousness if I was OK.
I went home and kept seeing that horrible scene in my head over and over and knew if I didn't know before words had consequences. Words and how they are expressed. I never remember getting excited before and was trying to remember if any fear was in my voice in my communication to the officer JJ as I was almost robotic when talking over the radio but we had been on the phone.
I kept blaming myself. JJ made it. JJ was let go without pay for not running lights and siren and he never blamed me but I blamed me. I tried to work for three more weeks after then but the scene had changed my perspective on words. I also felt like a sitting duck for a small amount of pay when someone's idea of training officers should not have been to remove almost every officer from patrol to attend a class on the same night.
I will never forget. I had handled worst cases in my employ as dispatcher but not one that I felt I had a hand in creating or seeing the results of. I turned in my notice and
left. I was a good dispatcher. All of this Travon Martin and dispatch request to stay put has made me think back to that Friday night. A Lot.
I have had the opportunity to work dispatch many times since. I have a very good recommendation from FDLE and the Police Depts but to me it is people not even trying to listen to what a dispatcher is saying that causes problems so many times and they discount the dispatcher so easily. I am here to stand up for them. They are truly the first responders.