Unsung Heroes: 911 Dispatchers

Imagine you are at home and someone break into, what is the first action you take? You will probably will call 911 to have the police come out to your home. The first person you will speak to is a 911 dispatcher or Telecommunicator. They are the people who answer the phones and send people help. It is an important occupation that protects and save lives similar to the police, firefighters, doctors, and of course the military. 911 dispatchers are important because they send help to those who call 911 and they aid in how to handle the situation. Dispatchers are the reason police officers, firefighters, and paramedics know where to go and who to help. Dispatchers are an important occupation that many people do not fully appreciate and recognize as a vital aspect in the emergency process. It is often an occupation that goes thankless and for those who become dispatchers, there are sacrifices they make that affect their health and personal relationships.

What is a 911 Dispatcher?

The first step towards understanding why 911 dispatchers are important is to first understand what they do. According to 911 Emergency Dispatcher, dispatchers are the first line of communication for people who have an emergency. Dispatchers send the proper authorities and provide assistance to the caller. This means 911 dispatchers have to excel at calmly handling frantic or excited callers and help them manage their emotions to avoid escalating potentially dangerous situations. 911 Dispatchers use telephone, radio, or computer dispatch systems to answer calls which allows them to get all the necessary information needed to determine the best course of action (911 Emergency Dispatcher, n.d.). While all dispatching centers have their own standard operating procedures, most require dispatchers to get the same pertinent information including what the call is about, what assistance is required, the location of the emergency, and the caller’s personal information.911 dispatchers have many other responsibilities such as creating call logs, preparing reports when necessary, and assisting in the training of new dispatchers (911 Emergency Dispatcher, n.d.). To give a specific example, there are dispatchers who communicate directly with police officers.

Geena Bartley is my sister and has been a dispatcher for four years with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office communications center. She said dispatchers “run driver’s licenses, license plates, check for warrants, monitor their traffic stops, and dispatch notes on high priority calls (shooting, stabbing, robbery, disturbance, etc.)”. According to 911 Emergency Dispatcher (n.d.), there are specific territories that 911 dispatchers are assigned to receive calls from. They must monitor locations of emergency personal, send the right number of emergency units, and when necessary provide first-aid instructions as well (Study.com, n.d.). There are aspects that change depending where a dispatcher works or the type of dispatching they do. Where she works, Geena explains that there are 4-6 per dispatchers working per shift answering a 911, a non-emergency, and a back line. According to Geena, she takes about 150 calls a day with more than half being non-emergency in nature, such as “past issues like someone broke into my house 4 days ago, where was my car towed to, or I need to talk to a deputy about a previous case, etc”.

Benefits and Negatives to Being a 911 Dispatching

There are several benefits and negatives to 911 dispatching. According to Bartley, one benefit is:

“it’s all about helping people. Even in the smallest way like telling someone where their car was towed to or the most important like convincing someone who is suicidal that their life is important. This job really helps me see that I do not have it that bad and that there are people suffering far worse than me” (2017).

Being able to help others as a 911 dispatcher gives people a different perspective on life knowing the difficulties that other people face. She also enjoys helping police officer by informing them of where the emergency is, what the necessary information is, and to ensure they are safe (2017). This means the police depend on 911 dispatchers because they would heading into a potentially dangerous situation. 911 dispatchers allow for the police to be prepared for an emergency along with monitoring the situation to makes sure they are safe. Another benefit according to Bartley is, “the thrill of the job, when I get a robbery in progress or something to that extent, the adrenalin picks up and I know exactly what to do, what to ask and how to dispatch it” (2017). This is because they must react to the situation by managing the situation for the caller and they have to assist the authorities. The final benefit she mentioned is getting the occasional caller that is nice and appreciative to the 911 dispatcher helping them, which she says reminds her why she does it (Bartley, 2017). This ties into the first benefit of being able to help people but with hearing directly from the people they help who show appreciation for the assistance.

There are also negative aspects to 911 dispatching. One negative is the hours, which according to Bartley (2017) she works 12 hour days 2-3 days a week, an 8 hour shifts one day, and is on call one day she is off adding up to about 48-plus hours a week. It is an hour intensive career because it is above the average 40-hour work week. This can put a lot of stress on a person who works as a 911 dispatcher because it is a lot work and a lot of hours. This could be a point in which the benefit of the adrenaline becomes a negative because doing that for 8-12 hours can be stressful. According to BLS (2015), “the pressure to respond quickly and calmly in alarming situations can be stressful” and not many people could handle that. Another negative aspect, which is less time for their social lives due to the long hours (Bartley, 2017). This could affect their personal lives with limited time with their family or friends. This makes it harder for 911 dispatchers maintain or manage their personal lives, which is a sacrifice they make. Another negative would be the salary for 911 dispatchers, which was $38,010 in May 2015 (BLS, 2015). With many jobs 38,000 would be a decent salary but that might not be much with the large amount of multi-tasking and the high level of stress involved with 911 dispatching.

Why 911 Dispatchers are Important

911 dispatching is an important aspect to society and there are several reasons why it is an important job. The first reason is people in emergency situations depend on dispatchers to communicate with authorities to send them help. If there were no 911 dispatchers then according to Bartley (2017), “no one would know you have an emergency. We are the first responders, the people who send the exact help you need in an emergency”. 911 dispatchers are important because they are the person people talk to first when they have an emergency. The authorities, whether it is police or paramedics, would not know of an emergency if they were not informed by the dispatcher. Dispatchers are the ones who ask questions to figure out the situation and to make sure authorities arrive to the emergency. Aiding people over the phone is also important because the dispatcher can manage the situation by giving the caller instructions on what to do.

Another reason 911 dispatchers are important is they are the eyes for the authorities by preparing the authorities for the situation. This an important aspect because without the right information, the authorities being sent might arrive at the wrong location. They also might not be ready for the situation. An example would be if paramedics go to an emergency thinking they are treating one medical condition but it turns out to be a heart attack. This could waste precious time, which could cost people their lives because it may be a life or death situation. The flip side would be the authority’s lives might be put in jeopardy with the wrong information like with police officers. If police officers get a call about an emergency but they do not know a person has a gun. In this situation, the police officers would be unprepared causing them to get shot or someone else to get shot. Lives would be put in danger if dispatchers were not there to give authorities the right information.

Conclusion

911 dispatchers are an important aspect in the lives of many people because dispatchers are the first responders when they face an emergency and need help. The job requires a lot of multi-tasking with answering calls, asking the caller questions, and getting the right authorities out to the caller. There are many reasons 911 dispatchers enjoy their jobs including being able to help people whether it’s the caller or the authorities, the thrill of the job, and receiving appreciation from some callers. There are many sacrifices they make like long hours, stress from the job, and limited personal time. There are several reasons that 911 dispatchers are important with the major reason being they save lives. 911 dispatchers deserve recognition for the work they do, by saving lives and in many ways, they are unsung heroes.

References

911 Emergency Dispatcher: Required Skills, Duties and Responsibilities (n.d.). Retrieved from http://study.com/articles/911_Emergency_Dispatcher_Required_Skills_Duties_and_Responsibilities.html

Bartley, G. (2017, March 17). Email Interview.

Police, Fire, and Ambulance Dispatchers (2015, Dec.17). Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/office-and-administrative-support/police-fire-and-ambulance-dispatchers.htm