Emergency Dispatchers As Unsung Heroes

When people talk about hearing voices, typical neuro-associations (how our brain links up symbols) might consider a mental health perspective of schizophrenia or a Judeo-Christian recognition of God, Jesus, Satan, or angels. The voices might even be our own — whispering in our ear and trying to convince us that we are going to bomb this exam. Maybe it’s a voice that tells us to come in for dinner, grab the ringing phone, or to grab a beer!

I hear voices, every now and again, and when I least expect them. These are voices of the past, for sure, and they are distant, but distinct. Quiet, yet loud. Multiple, yet singular. I’m a former cop, and I hear voices. I made a phone call to that voice the other day to see if it was still “real.” It was. It had been 15 years, but hearing that voice provided a sense of reason, purpose, identity, affirmation, acknowledgement, and, most of all, a feeling of “safety.”

Carolyn is a career dispatcher and the Director of the Communications Center, which handles police, fire, and EMS emergency dispatching for the agency I used to work for. I told her that I still heard her voice in my head, and she was delighted. How bizarre a notion, yet a bittersweet admission and implicit understanding between two public safety professionals.

A career (short or long) in the public safety profession etches voices, beeps, codes, and sirens into your head, and they don’t go away, but the ones that really last are the voices of the dispatchers — and that’s what this article is about. Although I never worked as a dispatcher, all of them touched my life, and I was always in awe of what they did. In the course of my tour of duty, I would often just watch or listen intently, amazed with the competence and temperament with which they worked their craft.

For the casual or interested person, there is not much fanfare for the 9-1-1 operator. There are few books written on the subject and even fewer articles, blogs, or columns. No TV shows, movies, parades, or annual “appreciation days.” Likewise, there are few resources and outlets for them, and so they must rely on themselves, their colleagues, families, and friends to help pull them through the day and nights.

Dispatchers are the front-line troops and first lines of communication in the public safety profession. They are nameless, faceless voices who always answer and always help. They are a proud yet humble group of people who have chosen to serve their communities by being that voice on the other end of the phone to provide hope and relief.

According to the Kansas 911 Coordinating Council, dispatchers were originally staffed with field personnel assigned to desk duty (due to punishment or injury) or employed by staff secretaries. The industry has now evolved into a legitimate profession with trained and certified emergency personnel. Most of its evolution, however, is due to the advancements in civilian technology and finding new ways to communicate, as well as deploying new technologies, of their own, to provide safer and more effective and efficient communication to the public and the public safety agencies they serve. Through this maturation process of emergency communications, however, the largest factor being ignored is the dispatcher!

According to dispatcher benevolent groups, such as APCO International and NENA as well as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, much work has yet to be accomplished in terms of advancements in salary, creating positions, filling positions, and standardization of training. There has always been a push to reclassify dispatchers as a protective services occupation. If you’re interested in learning about that, please visit #911saves below.

To complicate matters, a dispatcher may be a city employee and using equipment or a building owned by the county. As a result, they may answer to many bosses or be in the middle of budgetary "crossfire." Some are uniformed, have college educations, and others are not. Many dispatchers learn “on the job” and do not attend formal academies or schools. Most states do not require a minimum number of hours for initial or continuing education training, and as a result, 9-1-1 operators across the U.S. (and world) are left to in-house training, which, depending on the agency, can provide fantastic results, but will depend on resources (time, money, and the use of their own colleagues or public safety professionals, ride-a-longs, etc.).

Career Essential Reads

To Go or Not to Go (to the Office)

Why Entrepreneurs Often Fail

Dispatchers must possess skills and do some of the same things our public safety heroes do:

• Answering administrative and 9-1-1 calls
• Sending emergency and law enforcement vehicles
• Providing timely and accurate information
• Multi-tasking
• Have excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ability to manage stress
• Working with national crime information databases
• Assisting officers with traffic stops
• Providing excellent customer service
• Providing a calm, commanding, and reassuring presence

Dispatchers must field calls from legitimate crises to the absurd. Outside of dealing with their own struggling partners, oftentimes they will hear a child screaming that his mother is using drugs, a mother screaming and crying that she has lost her child, a call from a man who comes home to find his wife of 60 years passed away in her favorite chair, suicides, car accidents and fatalities, giving out basic life-saving techniques over the phone, weather conditions, calls about whether the electricity is back on, critters on the road, irate motorists, and so forth.

Dispatchers experience some of the same stressors that their first-responder counterparts do, such as:

• Burnout
• Loss of control
• Overwhelmed physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually
• Vicarious trauma (dealing with other people’s trauma)
• Prolonged stress
• PTSD
• Rotating shifts; rotating crises

The emergency communications dispatcher is a profession full of crises and comedy, drunks and domestics, and a short or long career is one of heroic proportions when examined with a true lens of compassion, empathy, understanding, and general job survival.

During my time on the road, I never knew if it was required or policy, but I always appreciated the voices that would call my radio number over any shift — day, evening, or night that said “211 . . . checking.” I would smile to myself and respond, “10-4.”

I would be remiss if I named just a few, but I wanted to personally thank the unsung heroes (here and anywhere in the world) who were my lifeline and are still voices in my head that still provide safety and acknowledgement of a life to serve and protect!

Copyright © 2019 by Brian A. Kinnaird

Brian A. Kinnaird, Ph.D. is a former Kansas law enforcement officer and current criminal justice professor, author, speaker, and trainer. He writes a column in the Law and Crime section of Psychology Today called The Hero in You. Visit his links to read other articles and, if you’re a former cop, check out his most popular article Life After Life Enforcement. A book on this subject is currently underway.