Submitted by Ardena Gemmell
Bristol, Tennessee
Central Communications
No one makes me dispatch
I do this job by choice
No one needs my name
I�m an unidentified voice
In life and death situations
With a frantic caller on the line
It�s my job to calm and reassure
And see that help gets there on time
From my mom is not breathing
To children left alone
I feel so helpless
My only connection-the phone
Central I need backup
And get them here on the double
It�s the worst feeling in the world
I have an officer in trouble
If something should go wrong
I have myself to blame
Had I done something differently
Would the result still be the same
With each new shift- I hope and
Pray�we make it home safely
At the end of the day
YOU may know where you are
and what you are doing.
GOD may know where you are
And what you are doing.
But if your DISPATCHER
doesn't know where you are
and what you are doing
Then I hope You and God
are on very good terms!!!!
The patience of Job,
The wisdom of Solomon,
The hide of an elephant,
The knowledge of law,
The ability to see around corners, through walls and read minds,
The ability to remember the location of every street,
road, apartment and business in town and country,
And the strength to carry this load of perfection.
Author Unknown
Back
Harrison County Bureau Of Emergency Services
The angel walked in and found the Lord walking around in a small circle and muttering to himself.
"What are you working on now lord?" he asked.
"Well, I finished creating a police officer, now I'm working on a dispatcher."
Since the angel could see nothing in the room, he asked God to tell him about it.
"It's somewhat like the police officer model, it has 5 hands, one for answering the phone, two for typing, one for answering the radio, and one for grabbing a cup of coffee. The arms are placed fairly carefully since all the tasks a dispatcher does, have to be done simultaneously. The digestive system is a little complicated, since it runs on coffee, and food that can be delivered, but seldom needs to get up for the rest room. I made the skin tempered duralite covered in Teflon. A dispatchers hide has to be tough enough to withstand darts from cranky officers, jabs from citizens, and lack of attention by administration, but not show any signs of wear and tear.
Unlike a police officer it only needs one pair of eyes, so that left extra room for the ears. There are 5 sets of ears, one set for the telephone, one for the main radio, two for the other radios it has to monitor, and one to hear everything else going on around it. They all fit right on the head, since it had to be extra large for the brain. The brain has to be enormous so it can remember a full set of 10 codes, phonetic alphabet, at least two hundred different voices, the entire contents of at least three different SOP manuals, two teletype manuals and an CPIC* code book. Of course I left enough extra space for it to learn the individual quirks of every different, Officer, Sgt.*, S/Sgt.,* & Platoon* commander, and other supervisors, and the ability to keep them all straight.
There also has to be room for it to learn which situations need an officer and which don't, and also the ability to determine in less than two seconds what do for any given event. There is a built in condenser so it can take an hour long explanation, put it into 30 seconds worth of radio transmission, but still get the whole story across.
Those switches on the front are for the emotions. It has to be able to talk to a mother who's child has just died without pain, a rape victim with empathy, a suicidal person with calmness and reassurance, and an abusive drunk without getting angry.
When one of the officers yells for help, it can't panic, and when someone doesn't make it, the dispatchers heart mustn't break. The little soft spot just to the left of the emotion switch is for abandoned animals, frightened children, and little old ladies who are lonely and just want to talk to someone for a few minutes.
The dispatcher has to care very much for the officers and public it serves, without getting personally involved with any of them, so I added another switch for that. Plus of course, the dispatcher can't have any of it's own issues to worry about while it is on duty, so that last switch turns these off.
The patience switch is turned up high all the time on the CTO model, and I've added an extra fuse for those to handle the overload.
A dispatcher has to be able to function efficiently under less than good physical conditions, and be flexible enough to withstand whatever whim the administration comes up with, while still retaining it's general shape and form. That warm fuzzy shoulder is there for officers to use when they gripe, and other dispatchers when they hurt, and for those who are shell shocked by a horrible call and just need someone to be there.
The voice gave me a little trouble, it has to be clear and easy to understand, and calm even when everyone else is screaming, but still able to convey empathy and caring while remaining totally professional. It runs for a full 12 hours on very little sleep, requires no days off, and gets paid less than an executive secretary."
"The dispatcher sounds wonderful, lord," said the angel, "where is this amazing creation?"
"Well, you see," answered the supreme being. "Dispatchers are invisible unless they make a mistake. So it's practically impossible to tell when they are run down, worn out or in need of repair. Now that I've created them, I can't see the original model to make enough of them to go around."
Author Unknown!
( * changed to reflect our terminology)