Dispatchers provide a calm voice in the turmoil of emergencies
and a lifesaving link for those in need
Something’s happened; an accident, a heart attack, a robbery. Instinctively, you reach for the phone and dial. A voice answers and someone is there during the crisis, talking you through, keeping you calm, sending you help. A dispatcher is the first person to respond to a 911 call.
In Morgan Hill, the phone rings and a red box on a computer touch screen flashes. Dispatcher Lisa Pritsch touches the box and speaks into her headset, not mincing any words.
“9-1-1?” she answers, fingers poised over the keyboard.
She begins typing information into boxes as she listens. There has been a car accident – a smaller car has collided with an SUV.
“Where are you? Is anyone hurt? Were you involved in the accident? Did you witness the accident?” asks Pritsch. Her partner radios the police with the information while Pritsch continues to type into the system.
“OK, we have someone on the way to help … bye,” and the call is done.
The phone rings again, but this time it’s the nonemergency line for the police department. Shortly after Pritsch answers, the police radio crackles to life. She is still talking with the caller, but she presses a foot pedal, quickly responds to the police radio, releases the pedal and continues her call without skipping a beat.
“This job is a lot of multi-tasking,” Pritsch said. “Mothers do well at this job because they’re used to keeping track of a lot of things, like at home we know this kid is here, this kid is there and we have to be at this place at this time. You get used to listening to multiple people talking and remember who to respond to with what information. It’s a definite skill.”
Morgan Hill dispatchers go through an intense three-week training course and one year of on-the-job training, said Sarah Savage, who has been a dispatcher for more than five years.
“It’s a lot to learn,” she said. “You need to know the law. You need to know how to prioritize things, how to handle difficult callers. We have to know all the codes, too, like the radio codes, penal codes and the vehicle codes. It’s a lot of information.”
Dispatchers sit in front of four computer screens. One is the phone touch screen that shows all the phone lines coming into the Morgan Hill Police Department, including the four 911 lines. Two of the screens show the program dispatchers use to enter information they receive from incoming calls and to look up information requested by officers, such as whether someone has any outstanding warrants. The fourth screen shows radio transmission information.
When an emergency call comes in, dispatchers find out what kind of emergency the call is before determining what kind of response is needed. As they ask the caller questions, they’ll send police or fire to the scene as they continue gathering details to relay to the respondents. In Morgan Hill, medical emergencies are transferred to another call center where dispatchers have specialized training.
If a caller doesn’t speak English, dispatchers are able to patch into a three-way call with a center that provides translators in every language.
“They’re like the brains of the operation,” said Watch Commander Howard, who was passing through the dispatch center. “They get all the information that comes in here, and they shoot it out to all of us. We couldn’t do anything without them.”
Though Savage said she enjoys her job, she often finds it frustrating how often 911 is misused.
“911 is for life-and-death kind of emergencies – not loud parties or barking dogs,” Savage said, rolling her eyes. “Don’t call 911 to ask us when your power is going to come back on; call PG&E. And don’t call 911 to ask for Gilroy’s police department’s phone number. You could be tying up the line for someone who really does have an emergency.”
One of the first 911 calls Pritsch said she ever got was a woman who wasn’t sure if she was spelling a word correctly and wanted to check it with someone. Savage has also had a man call to report someone had stolen his conscience and a woman call because the condom broke while she and her husband were having sex.
“It’s amazing what people will call 911 for,” Pritsch said.
Other issues dispatchers deal with include 911 hang-ups and people who call all the time with often-imagined emergencies.
“For hang-ups, if it’s a residence, we’ll send someone out to check it out. If it’s a pay phone, we’ll call a nearby business and ask them to look outside for us, and if it’s a business, we’ll call them back,” Savage said. “For the habitual callers, we respond every time. It’s like the boy that cried wolf. We don’t want the one time we ignore them to be the one time there really is an emergency.”
Pritsch and Savage both said the hardest calls to handle are those that involve a child who is hurt or in trouble.
“There isn’t really a 911 call you like to get, but it’s the most rewarding when you get a call where you know you helped and when it all went right,” Pritsch said. “You just have to learn to separate yourself from the job. This is work, and you have to leave it at the office. Sometimes people find that hard to do.”
Another difficult aspect of the job is having to work some undesirable shifts, Savage said. Dispatchers regularly work 10-hour shifts and often a lot of overtime.
“It’s the nature of the job,” she said. “If you do this, at some point you will have to work some holidays or graveyard shifts. You will miss a Christmas, you will miss your child’s T-ball game or something else you wish you could be there for. But it’s still a great job.”
Tips when Calling 911:
– Know exactly where you are, especially if you’re calling on a cell phone. The most important thing dispatchers need to know is your location.
“Even if we don’t know anything else, but we know where you are, we can send someone to you,” said Sarah Savage, a dispatcher at the Morgan Hill Police Department. “If we don’t know where you are, we can’t do anything to help you.”
– Teach children their first and last name, their parents’ names, and their home address. These pieces of information will make it easier for dispatchers to get help to a child, even if the child is too scared to provide any other information.
– Try to stay calm and answer the dispatcher’s questions. The more information about the emergency you can give them, the better.
– Details are important. Note license plates, vehicle descriptions and how people look, what they’re wearing, etc.
What they’re Paid
The starting salary per month for a dispatcher is about $4,715, which breaks down to roughly $27.20 per hour. The top salary is about $6,015 per month, which is approximately $34.70 per hour.
Source: Patti Yinger, police support services manager for the Morgan Hill Police Department
