Stories of a Police Dispatcher

This is pretty much how every call starts. When people dial 911 they aren't listening to what we say. I ask the address and instead of giving it they say what the problem is, which I make them repeat after I finally get the address. This is the order of importance on information when you call 911: Exact location of where the emergency is, phone number we can call you back at in case we get disconnected, your name, and finally what is happening.

Bad Luck Brian. Nuff said.

The fire department here are the first responders. They are sent to so many unnecessary calls. I guess it's partly to pad their numbers or as some people call it: "Empire building". But really, EMD protocol requires them to go to many calls that they really have no business being at, but it all depends on how the person calling answers the questions we ask. Why this is a problem is because we have limited resources and units. If she said she also had difficulty breathing (because her nose is plugged), that would automatically require a medic respond. If a medic responds to a nose bleed, they are committed to that call. If a legitimate cardiac arrest comes in seconds after with CPR in progress, there very well might not be a medic available for that call.

911 is for life threatening emergencies. We let most things slide like minor car accidents, but if you're at home and need to call in a noise complaint, there is NO excuse to dial 911. Do yourself a favor and look up the phone numbers of your local police department where you live, where you work, and where you spend most of your time. Also put this phone number in your phone: 1-800-222-1222. It's poison control and it's free.

Every cell phone can dial 911, even if you're out of minutes or there is no phone number attached to it. But that's in case you have a life threatening emergency. We're not here to schedule your medicine deliveries.

We have a lot of down time many nights. We literally sit around and wait for bad things to happen to people. We are lucky enough to have a television (and internet access on the computers) but at 3:30 in the morning there's only SO much Law and Order one can watch before they start going insane. I spend a lot of time here making sure Freedom is protected because 'Murica never sleeps.

Every spring the river rises from the melting snow from the north. Every year there is at least one of the roads that floods, and the water is ALWAYS deeper than it looks. And we ALWAYS put road blocks up saying that there is flooding and not to go down. There's another route people can take that adds maybe 4 minutes to their commute. We can't completely block off the road because there are a few houses on it. Unless you want Beth to die of dysentery, don't ford that river.

It's the 30 second rule and never fails. Officer on scene requests an ambulance or tow truck. They wait X amount of time before having us call to see where they are. They ALWAYS seem to show up at X + 30 seconds, usually after we start dialing.

This was the first shooting call I took while I was still in training. I've taken NUMEROUS shooting calls since then, but this is the only one that has actually stuck with me, and this was over 7 years ago. Her screams when stepping out into the hallway will haunt me for quite some time.

This is a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week operation. Emergency knows no holiday. We take days off when we can, but SOMEONE has to be here on the weekends. Have I missed a number of important events? Absolutely. I work midnights and can generally adjust my sleep pattern. I can do things in the morning when I get out of work, or in the evening before work, but if something is scheduled between noon and 5pm, I just can't make it. The way our schedule works is that we work 5 on, 2 off, 4 on, 2 off. So every 13 weeks or so we get weekends off.

11th picture cat tax. I hope you enjoyed this posting and possibly learned something. Thanks for reading a few short stories!.