Check This Out

http://wcpr2001.org/1dispatchers.htm#

I had earlier mentioned the fact my last continuing education course dealt with suicide callers. A tough and frustrating part of our job. During the course they talked about the West Coast Post-Trauma Retreat, a place for first responders to get help from other first responders who understand the special and unique requirements of law enforcement and fire fighting and medical rescue.

Of course, I had to ask if they (WCPR) also recognize that dispatchers are capable of getting PTSD. But their needs for counseling are different than the officer/firefighter/paramedic/emt.

AND THEY DO!

Check out the website, specifically the location above. Clearly dispatchers are getting the professional respect needed, thus getting the professional help many of us need.

I will volunteer the fact I have sought counseling because of the stresses of my job. And even though the counselor/phd works with other officers and a couple dispatchers, the counselor/phd, wasn't from that "world" and only could listen from a "second-hand" knowledge.

Not quite the same. Though I appreciated the support I got, and at times the encouragement, I still don't think the impact of my job, listening and hearing too much, was truly understood. And since one of my complaints was the constant whining of callers about problems they made, knowing I was in that office whining too, made it difficult to truly open up.

I think this would be a "safe" and good place, with listeners truly understanding our daily tasks, to fully express our 'tudes and frustrations (with callers and brass and supervisors).

It has been hard to find papers written on ptsd for dispatchers. Those in the psychological field don't usually recognize our stress levels since, in their opinions, we are removed from the actual trauma by the phone extension, thus not directly involved.

BUNK!

As dispatchers we are the first of the first responders. We may not have the visual but our imaginations can color those pictures real quick. And it is, and can be, very difficult to turn off the mental recordings of those phone calls or the radio traffic in time of crisis.

Maybe here some of us can get the help and learn the skills to handle the long term effect of this job.

Stress Relievers

We know our job is full of doom and gloom, trauma and drama. Inside the department and with our citizens. Let's face it, people don't call us because they are having a great day and want to share good news with us. We deal with phone call after phone call of pain, anger, fear, confusion. Radio traffic full of responding to calls for service, traffic stops, and keeping track of our boys and girls in cars helping citizens on the streets.

So I ask you, how do you relieve the stress of your job?

Have a co-worker who runs (or walks very quickly) the stairs of a major university football stadium. Another rides for miles and miles on bikes. One spends hours looking through the world of a camera lens and photographing gorgeous scenery.

Had a co-worker who knitted during her shift (knew how irritating the caller was by how fast her needles were flying) and did woodwork at home. Was always remodeling and reworking something for her home; her haven.

Then there are those co-workers (present and past) who are rude to officers, ruder to callers, and down right rude and snippy to co-workers. Guess that's how they relieve their stress - give it to others.

I do needlework, like crocheting, needlepoint, cross stitch, embroidery, by the hour. Also love to do home repairs (even have my own power tools) and paint rooms. I also am very active in my community through volunteer work. Believe if you're not part of the solution you are part of the problem.

Let's face it world, we all have stress. But as dispatchers we have it much much more than the average person. Yes, I know, physical movement, like exercise, it a healthier way to relieve the stress. But yuck, I want something to show for my time. Something I can point at and say I created that, I painted that, I fixed that.

Here is a great article about different forms of stress relievers:
http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/a/stressrelievers.htm

As I said earlier, had a question for you dear reader. How do you relieve the stress of your job? What helps you sleep? What keeps you sane (well, keeps you off the edge)?

PTSD

Check out this link. http://ptsd.factsforhealth.org/have/ptsd.aspx

As dispatchers we listen to trauma and drama for hours on end, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. For any dispatcher I talk to, there is usually at least two different phone calls or radio events that pops into their mind, instantly, when asked about a scary call.

Usually when people think about PTSD it is in terms of a serviceman or servicewoman returning from battle. Or an officer involved in an OIS. Little is written about the cumulative effect of witnessing and/or listening to trauma and drama when people are truly at the worst moments of their lives and you can't do very much to help and too many times as dispatchers we don't know how it ended. An officer has that benefit at least.

I think I may be exploring this phenomenon more in this blog. After all, it is here for me to express my work-related thoughts. This blog is here for me to help de-stress. And I think it is a component that needs exploring.

So the next few entries will be for me. Well, actually all the writings have been for me. But as it seems people are actually reading this, many of you may find the next few entries disturbing or off-track or even think it is the wrong place for the exploration. My words to you, don't read them. Just move on. Take me off your reading list.

I need to do this. This is how I work through my dark moments. Many psychiatrists and counselor's recommend their patients to journal. As I can type much faster than I can write, blogging has become a great outlet for me. Maybe I can come to terms with some things without the need for a PhD or Counselor or meds.

Customer Service

A big part of our job is, well, customer service, to be blunt. Like the clerk in a store or the ticket agent at our favorite airline, we provide customer service. We determine what the “customer” wants and needs are and give them the necessary information (go to court and obtain a restraining order or serve your 30 year old lazy bum of a son with an eviction notice) or obtain for them the services (an officer or guys with the little white jackets) needed.

Not everyone is happy with the level of customer service we provide. We are refusing to send an officer to talk to their out of control 15 year daughter and instead tell them to talk to the school counselor and learn to handle their child without using the boys and girls in uniform as a threat. A vehicle burglary is not handled with them same priority as a robbery which can upset the victim who just lost a chunk of their CD selection and has to wait two or eight hours for a Cadet or Community Service Officer to respond.

But we, as dispatchers, trudge on and try to serve the angry caller with the best diplomacy possible. We can’t point out to them how stupid and childish they are acting when they call in about a child custody issue. We can’t be blunt and tell parents to grow a backbone or a pair of cajones and deal with their children as an adult instead of their friend. We have to be respectful and try to assist.

Many a moon ago I worked for the Disney Corporation. Guest Service is drilled into you from day one and reinforced through monthly staff meetings and games and challenges. Respect for the other person, guest and co-worker, is always in the forefront as is trying to help the guest with questions or directions or problems being paramount. Leaving a positive impression, even when the other person has to be corrected and not getting exactly what they want, is required.

One lesson I like to think I have brought to my dispatching job from my time with “The Happiest Place On Earth” is the ability to acknowledge the other person’s problem without having to fake or express empathy. People call us with their traumas and dramas, sometimes brought on by their own actions. By the simple act of acknowledging their anger or pain or confusion can go a long way in calming the caller. You don’t have to say, “I understand” if you don’t. Just let them know you hear them.

Thought for the Day

"We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police."
Jeff Mader, Actor

Is this not a great quote? Our agency has as part of its motto (not quoting exactly to protect, well, me): Response in professional, courteous and timely manner.

Reality: If you're lucky you will get a Community Service Officer or Cadet to your residential burglary in an hour. If you're lucky you will get an Officer to talk to your neighbors about their loud music in less than three hours. If you're lucky, you will get that callback from a light duty Officer or CSO or Cadet for the telephonic report of lost property or fraud within two days.

The above is not an exaggeration.

Officers are much better in responding to accidents and fights and shootings. You know, those "hot calls". Where they get to be a real police officer. Not a secretary taking personal information from a victim of theft or counselor listening to the whinings about unruly neighbors.

After all, most of those wearing a badge didn't hire on to play nursemaid to society. They hired on to fight crime and help the innocent. And it allows them to rubberneck in the front row of trauma and drama.

Yeppers... pizza delivery companies have learned the best way to get business is to be prompt and courteous and offer good merchandise at a fair price. Oops. We're not looking to increase our customer base. We're hoping to eliminate it as a final goal.

But there are components we in the law enforcement forum might want to consider for good public relations. Like prompt and courteous service. The good merchandise being professional acting Officers, CSO's, Cadets and Dispatchers. The fair price they pay is their taxes the citizenry already pay. Let's give them good bang for their bucks.

Dispatchers Becoming Officers

As I have been around in the dispatching world for more than a couple decades (for those of you who don't do math, that's more than 20 years), I have seen several Dispatchers demote themselves to officers for the better pay and less stressful work life. What I have found is that usually they are really great to work with because they understand the intricacies of our job better than an officer who sat for a couple hours during his orientation and/or training.

But there is always that one exception. And the exception is an officer that should never have even been hired on as a dispatcher. Talk about too much 'tude and has the mentality of Cliff from Cheers.

This person started their illustrious career with the City by attending the fire academy but couldn't get hired on by the fire department (have heard the rumors why but since I can't substantiate won't list them here). Then applied as a Dispatcher but from day one talked about all their knowledge about the fire department. At the time we dispatched fire and police so naturally the person knew more about how dispatching fire calls should go and everything that was happening and felt the need to share all that information. Constantly.

When this person got accepted into the police academy many of us started groaning. The person worked part time in dispatch so they could keep paying their bills while attending the academy. But was always cranky and full of lectures of how calls should be handled, by Dispatch and officers.

When the person actually got hired as an officer the groans in Dispatch got very loud. Several of then approximately 70 dispatchers said they would not be working the radio channel when that person was working patrol. And this morning was the example of why their former fellow dispatchers felt this way.

Was telling the radio dispatcher (me) what the complaint taker dispatcher should be asking the reporting party who said someone was trying to break into their house, wanting descriptions of the suspects and then got rude (dripping with a big 'tude) when told the reporting party was whispering because they were frightened and didn't want to look out the window or even leave their bedroom until they knew a police officer was on scene. "Then how does the RP know someone is trying to get in?" Excuse me? How I wish I could reach through the radio to hit the specific officer up against the side of the head.

So attention to you Dispatchers thinking of increasing your paycheck by swearing in as an officer. Remember your former co-workers do know what to ask and how and isn't trying to keep any information from you. Surely, you remember just how busy it gets and how difficult it is at times to get information from reporting parties. So drop the 'tude and let's get on with our business.

Criminal vs Civil

After enjoying a day with my family to celebrate a little holiday cheer, I return to work and deal with a very angry member of the community I work for, one of my first phone calls for the day. And spend a great amount of time trying to explain the difference between a criminal call for service (which we would handle) and a civil incident/case (in which we would not respond). And listened to her mouthing off and start "kitchen sinking" list of complaints about the agency I work for.

On television and in movies, you never see an Officer or Dispatcher refuse to answer a citizens request for police presence. An officer responds and settles the issue and writes up the report. Yeah, right.

Hello to all those script writers out there! Learn the facts and write accordingly! Take the opportunity to educate the general public who believe everything they see on television and in the movies as fact.

Law enforcement agencies, like the local police departments and sheriff departments, as a rule, respond to requests of the criminal nature. Granted, many sheriff departments have a civil division to help with service of warrants and restraining orders, but the rule of thumb is, if you have a complaint of the civil nature, don't call the police. They're crime fighters. Civil servants that don't handle civil complaints. (Now that's an oxymoron-ish).

Super Power Hearing

If you dispatch for any length of time, you develop a very special super power. Your hearing and ability to "read into" the verbal messages and speech is a very superior skill that builds over experience and time. Since we don't have the opportunity to read the other person's body language like an officer responding to an event, we "hear" differently.

Recently took a 9-1-1 hang up. When I called back to confirm everything was okay, following policy of having the person on the other side of the call confirm address and telephone number, got a male on the phone who was sniffing and muttering child made a mistake (but child was already gone when asked about the child) and he didn't know the address and phone number.

His demeanor, his avoidance, his repetitiveness of "it's a mistake" set off an internal alarm that was forged over years of experience. It told me that something was off center and needed attention. So a call for service was created and officers were sent. Sent a note to the officers that something sounded hinky and they were like, "okay, we'll check it out."

Well, lo and behold, what did officers find? A domestic violence situation with the suspect male trying to hide from officers. After all, he was in violation of a restraining order and on probation. So this visit by officers meant a pair of silver bracelets were gifted to his wrists and a drive down to the county jail for booking with a future return to the state funded country club to finish his original sentence due to, , domestic violence and assault.

The officers were very good about not shrugging off my gut reaction to the call. They took me serious and it paid off. Now, the only problem is, how does a dispatcher explain this super power and ability in an articulate and accurate manner in an easy to understand format for court?

Ambitions

I like to read my husband's police magazines at times. Between books when visiting the throne room. Usually that's all they're good for as they repeatedly ignore a very important component of officer safety, US - THE DISPATCHERS. Sorry. My personal feelings of resentment took over for a moment.

There is an interesting column written I found in the back of one of those magazines (that over look the importance of US - The Dispatchers)(whoa, guess I am not holding on as tight to my emotions as I thought) that gave me a little pause for contemplation.

It is an article of retrospect of how upon graduating from the academy he began preparing for his sergeant's exam at least three years away, keeping his eye on the next rank and moving forward. He would become a lieutenant before retirement. The crux of his article though was, in a nutshell, "some of the most important things I have done in life were not as a lieutenant, but as an officer, a father, a husband, or a friend."

That's all very nice for an officer to contemplate or live or work towards, but there isn't anything like that in Dispatch. The best we can hope for is to become, first, a trainer (a whole 5% pay raise for all the extra paper work and responsibility) and maybe, just maybe, become a supervisor (where another 15% pay raise helps offset the new headaches coming your way.) But these two steps still keep us in the same windowless padded walls basement overcrowded room.

Records Clerks on average make less money than Dispatch. But they can promote to Division Secretaries and Area Clerks, working among detectives and out of area/substation offices. Also, on average, there are more Records Supervisors than Dispatch Supervisors, so more opportunities to promote within Records themselves. With the new assignment comes a pay raise, but gives them the opportunity to meet and greet and tackle a new challenge and learn a new skill.

Yes, there are very few jobs that will give a person a more thrilling and scary ride or more unique problem solving opportunity than law enforcement and fire dispatching. The very job is wrought with challenges and a constantly moving topography of rules and laws and needs.

But I guess my point is, that's all we get. Year after year. Some departments do allow their dispatchers to take specialized training, like disaster management or hostage crisis or swat call out dispatching. But many times the dispatcher has to take the initiative and pay for it themselves, because they care about their jobs enough to go the extra mile. And still many times the department overlooks these new learned skills to write manuals on how they want things done, when training and experience from the point of a dispatcher is totally ignored. And the good dispatcher moves and flows with the demands asked of their superior officers and incorporates their knowledge within the perimeters set by the uneducated to the point the senior officer believes it was always written and understand to work that way.

It would be nice if police magazines at least carried a column written by a dispatcher over the concerns and jobs and abilities of a dispatcher. Maybe focus ever so often on a dispatcher that truly goes up and over and out of their way to make their job better and safer.

It would be nice and very smart for agencies to be as concerned for additional training for their dispatchers as they are for their officers. (Yes, I know, part of the reason agencies send officers to training is because they get reimbursed by POST or other such state governing agency.)

And it would be truly wise for dispatch supervisors and agencies to look for ways to keep their dispatchers in touch within their agency through occasional temporary postings or assignments that gives the dispatcher the opportunity to be a more recognized proactive member of the agency to keep their assigned populace safe and secure. And to help levitate a little of the constant barrage of negativity usually sent the direction of those hardworking diligent and dedicated communications center employees. US DISPATCHERS. (ahem)

Back from Vacation

Yes, I really took some time off. Well, did so because I had been organizing a two day meeting and wanted the days leading up to it free so I could handle last minute requests. And ended up sick the whole time! Talk about unfair. What is this world coming to? How dare I get sick and then go on vacation? Clearly working in a windowless basement room with up to twenty other people can't be a cause for this medical problem. Clearly I was infected by the occasional exposure to the general public when making a grocery stop or shopping errand.

But I did get to look out a window and see the rain fall and the wind blow as leaves piled up into the pool. Thank goodness the pool upkeep is my husband's responsibility. It was nice to see the reminder of the visual bright and colorful world versus the not so bright intellectual and colorful languaged folks we deal with daily in our jobs.

Back to the grey padded walls (yes, they really do have a small padding on them, supposedly for noise containment - but that's a whole nother posting) with several framed color landscape photographs to remind us dispatchers that there is a world outside.