911 Dispatching Interview

With Geena Bartley on March 17, 2017

1. What is it like being a 911 dispatcher

Bartley- Being a 911 dispatcher is hard to put in a small sentence. We are master multi-taskers and live for the thrill of the job but at the same time hate it. Our official job title is “Telecommunicator”. The job is incredibly stressful but rewarding at the same time. There’s a lot of sacrifice that comes with this job, but at the end of the day you help so many people and that’s why I do it.

2. How much work goes into being a dispatcher?

Bartley- A lot of work doesn’t come close to what we do. To give you perspective, I work 6am-6pm 2-3 times a week and either 10am-6pm or 6am-2pm one day a week. I get no lunch, most days it takes me 2-4 hours to eat my lunch. On top of working 40-48 hours a week I also have 1 on call day during my regular days off which means I could work a 12 or an 8 depending on the needs of the department. A 40 hour week is a very rare thing in the dispatching world.

My agency we have call takers, TLETS and radio dispatching. Our day is usually split up into 6 hour shifts; 6a-12p on phones or TLETS then 12p-6p on radio. That varies though, some days you can spend 8 hours on phones and 4 hours on radio and vice versa.

Call taking is exactly what it sounds like. There’s between 4-6 dispatchers answering our phone lines. We answer 3 lines that usually are all ringing at once; 911, non-emergency and the back line (which is an extra non-emergency line essentially) In January I answered 880 911 calls. That number is high but that number is not including the calls I took on our non-emergency line or our back line. I take roughly 150-200 calls a day and that is in 6-8 hour period.

TLETS is data entry. Ever wonder how a police officer knows if someone is wanted or if a vehicle is stolen? That’s because a dispatcher entered the information on the person or stolen item into a national and state wide data base. NCIC (National Crime Information Center) might sound familiar. For Texas, it’s TCIC (Texas Crime Information Center) and TLETS (Texas Law Enforcement Telecommunications System). We enter all our stolen vehicles, missing people, wanted people, stolen laptops, etc. into that system. All our entries must be done in a timely manner but we also have to answer phones on top of this responsibility which can get incredibly stressful.

Radio dispatching is where we directly communicate with the officers on the ground responding to calls. We run drivers licenses, license plates, check for warrants, monitor their traffic stops and dispatch notes on high priority calls (shooting, stabbing, robbery, disturbance, etc.).

3. What are non-emergency calls?

Bartley- 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.

4. Why is it important to have dispatchers?

Bartley- Think of it this way; you wake up in the middle of the night to glass shattering in your home, the person who did that is now in your living room on the way to your location and they have a gun. What’s the first thing you think to do? Call 911. Without 911 dispatchers, 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.

5. Do you feel appreciated by other people for what you do?

Bartley- Dispatchers are universally known as the ‘unsung heroes’ because we do not get a lot of recognition. We do not get thanked or given awards. It’s just something we’re used to. There are very few instances where we will get appreciation; in April, we have Telecommunicator Week and it’s a whole week were we get thanked for doing this incredibly stressful and hard job. It’s a great week and my supervisors do a great job every year to make it fun for us. Citizens throughout the county will also surprise us throughout the year with cookies or cards to show appreciation.

6. Do you think there is enough national attention for 911 dispatchers with what they do and the importance of dispatchers to society?

Bartley- There is national attention drawn to 911 dispatching, but it’s mostly for the negatives. There’s not enough attention for the positive outcomes 911 dispatching has on the community. You’ll always hear about a dispatcher that hung up on a citizen or how a dispatcher lost it on a caller who was being rude and belligerent. You hardly ever hear about how a dispatcher saved someone’s life by giving CPR instructions or how a dispatcher talked someone out of shooting themselves. There’s also not a lot of support when it comes to dispatching. We aren’t even considered ‘law enforcement support’ even though our main job is supporting law enforcement, they’d rather label us as ‘administration’, dispatching is the furthest thing from an administration position.

7. Why did you become a 911 dispatcher?

Bartley- This job kind of fell into my lap. I had no idea what a ‘Telecommunicator’ was until I met with my Lieutenant who informed me that this is 911. I never thought I could do this job until I started doing it. The real question should be, why did you stay? I stayed because 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. Also, 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. The thrill in dispatching is really a love/hate relationship but we all like the exciting calls.

8. Do you have any good relationships with the people you work with?

Bartley- Yes, with 911 dispatching you have to get along with your coworkers because we all work together as a team. Without team work and good communication between one another this whole operation would not work. That’s not to say that there aren’t moments of drama, because there’s plenty of that, but you have to learn to deal with it professionally and not to hold anything against anyone. Dispatching is a beast and the stress can really tear someone down and turn them into a different person, so it’s important to remember to not take anything personally in the office.

9. What do you like the most and what do you like the least with being a dispatcher?

Bartley- Of all 3 things we do, I love police dispatching. When you’re on the radio you’re directly talking to the officers and dispatching the calls that the call takers take. Reading notes, running people to make sure they don’t have warrants or a valid driver’s license and even the occasional pursuit. You are essentially the officer’s eyes while they’re enroute to a priority call. We’re also their lifeline. If they’re out on a traffic stop we check on them all the time to make sure they’re ok. I also love to help people. Most of the people I talk to, they’re in a crisis so they’re not so nice. But occasionally I’ll get the nicest person and that one person out of 200 will make my whole day and remind me why I do this.

My least favorite part of being a dispatcher is the stress that comes with it. It’s exhausting to deal with it 4-5 days a week and then trying to leave work at work. It’s really hard to deal with sometimes. I also tend to alienate myself from people, not on purpose, but it happens. The friends I do have don’t understand the strain this job puts on me. Friends who have a ‘normal person job’ don’t take the time to get where I’m coming from because they don’t understand it. Or they’ll try to say that their job is just like mine, and it’s 100% not. So needless to say, social lives are very hard to maintain when you’re a dispatcher..