More PTSD Information

Have been Bing'ing "PTSD + Dispatch(er)" and can find no articles written about PTSD and dispatching. But if you search "PTSD + Law Enforcement" you can find a plethora of articles. Naturally I skimmed through them to look for anything related to dispatchers.

NOTHING

But I did like this quote from a published article written by Paul G Brown from The Criminal Justice Institute, School of Law Enforcement Supervision, November 2003, entitled, "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Law Enforcement."

I quote, "We have all no doubt heard of police burnout. Usually police officers experience burnout after about eight to ten years of experience. After many years of seeing things on a daily basis that would make most people cringe, police officers begin to feel numb and feel that they have "seen it all". Nothing seems to affect them anymore. Their work and their attitude toward police work may suffer. Morale goes down and sometimes police officers relieve their stress by becoming increasingly violent toward citizens, suspects, and even their own families."

I submit the section could read like this, catered towards dispatchers:: "We have all no doubt heard of job burnout. Usually public safety dispatchers experience burnout after about five to seven years of experience. After many years of listening and hearing horrific things on a daily basis, for hours on end, that would bring the average person to tears, dispatchers begin to feel great levels of frustration, disassociation and think they have heard it all. After thousands of these calls they are less able to empathize with the callers, and thus unable to connect to be able to help to their fullest ability. Their work and their attitude toward police work and their co-workers begin to suffer. Morale goes down, Supervisors demand more, and too many times the dispatchers relieve their stress by becoming increasingly rude and belligerent toward citizens, callers, co-workers and even their own families."

Am not really saying anything new. Have discussed these very merits in previous blogs. But it is interesting that just the changing of job title and job description, the law enforcement officer PTSD (a diagnosis recognized) aligns perfectly to describe law enforcement dispatcher PTSD, something not recognized.

Am thinking of changing my major from Business/Marketing to Psychology. Think more research is needed in this area. And it is clear that so far no one is taking the issue seriously. Guess not enough dispatchers are committing suicide or physically hurting their family members over the stresses of their job to get the attention of someone who cares.

Also, in my humble opinion, dispatchers get so conditioned to being treated like a second class citizens in their job, they begin to discount their own personal feelings, ignore the physical stress symptoms, and don't share their experiences enough so others out there can be educated as to the level of stress and horror we are exposed to regularly.

Time for us dispatchers to speak up and be heard. Because I know I'm not the only one out there experiencing the symptoms of PTSD and having them over looked and ignored because my job title is dispatcher, not officer.

Racial Profiling

Wikipedia Encyclopedia says racial profiling is the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act. Civil rights advocates are against the use of racial profiling tactics by the police.

Conversely, it is argued that including race as one of the several factors in suspect profiling is generally supported by the law enforcement community. It is claimed that profiling based on any characteristic is a time-tested and universal police tool, and that excluding race as a factor is insensible.


Okay. Sooo... let's see if I get this right. Racial profiling done by police as a tool to assist with preventing and solving crimes, preventing damage done to property and people is not permitted. A big no-no.

But..... Yet..... a private citizen can call in the appearance of a person of a different race (the first words out of their mouth) in their neighborhood that does not have a person of that race, requesting immediate police presence to find out what trouble they are preparing to make, a crime they are clearly getting ready to commit, based solely on their appearance, not by their current actions.

Or how about that caller that likes to describe the guy in the robes with a beard that is hanging around a certain location that shouldn't have someone like that near.

Or about the older caller describing the kid who is clearly a gangbanger (and when did that term stop being a sexual assault term and become a description of a wannabe laughable gangsta) cause of his attire and self mutilation (expanding earrings/lobes and multiple piercings) and probably ready to hurt someone.

Apparently the term "racial profiling" is ONLY applied to its use by law enforcement. It is NOT applied to the use by private citizens.

Talk about DISCRIMINATION. DOUBLE STANDARDS.

Oh yeah. We wear the color of the badge. We're not able to or suppose to use the same descriptors utilized by the citizens we serve and protect. We're accountable to a different standard. A higher standard. A color/ethnic/descriptor/sex/religion blindness standard.

Cop Language

If you work law enforcement you know that we speak another language. There is 10 code and 11 code and 9 code and vehicle code and penal code and health & welfare code and and and. You get the picture. But we also deal with abbreviations big time. Got to put a lot of information out there as quickly as possible in the most compact manner. Thus, codes and abbreviations are used. Only those of us "in the business" are going to understand.

459 busn IP... 3 WM susps LB e/b from loc, all wrg blk tshirts

or

Welf Ck HM down, poss 11-44

or

Poss DK driver w/b blu Chev p/u, partial lic 5NUV

or

Armed 211 just occd... 1 WF susp, blonde hair, 507, wrg yell dress... no one injd


You get the idea. What I do find frustrating is because I type in this language 10-15 hours a day, 4-6 days a week, when I have to type and write properly, similar to what I am doing now, I find myself typing in abbreviations. Have to go back and spell out a word. When I started this job I was typing 120+ wpm. Recently had a reason to retest my typing speed and it has slowed down to 89wpm. Because I had fallen out of the practice of typing complete words and sentences.

This job gets you in soooo many ways.

Calling 9-1-1

Okay people. Let's talk about calling 9-1-1.

This number is for life and death emergencies and crimes in progress only! Not to call to ask for a non emergency phone number because you're too lazy to call 4-1-1 for the information or look it up in the telephone book. Or to say you woke up to find your car stolen or broken into.

I have the opportunity regularly to speak in front of groups about proper 9-1-1 use. And I tell them these four things to remember. So listen up readers.

1. In ten words or less tell the dispatcher what is happening.
For example: I think I need an ambulance.
Was in a car accident.
See a house on fire.

2. Where is this happening?
Know your home address. Keep track of your location as you travel.

3. Shut Up!
There's no nice way to say this. But as a dispatcher I have a list of questions I need to ask you. You may have things you want to tell me, but they probably are not the items I need to know right away. There will be opportunity to tell me later or tell the officer. But Shut Up for right now and let me ask the questions for the information I need to know.

4. Breath!
Your adrenaline is madly pumping. You're excited and anxious and scared. That means your mind is not working like I need it to so I can help you. So take a deep breath. And another. Focus on my voice and let me try to help you.

These may seem like -duh- to you, but these are daily issues for any public safety dispatcher out there.