'9-1-1, what's your emergency?' '9-1-1, what's your emergency?' (February 25, 2005)

Dispatcher behind the voice
by Teresa C. Brown

A bank employee becomes suspicious of a customer. After she verifies signatures on the bank records, the teller believes the man is attempting to cash a forged check and she reaches for the telephone.

In a glassed-in room at the Pleasanton Police Department, one of two 9-1-1 dispatchers takes the teller's call. Fingers pattering on a keyboard, longtime dispatcher Alda Nash answers. In spite of the background noises of other 9-1-1 calls and radio chatter, she quickly gathers as much information as possible: What has happened? Where is the suspect?

Nash knows the area well, and glancing at a monitor, she quickly identifies and calls a responding patrol car into action as well as back-up cars to help secure the perimeter of the bank to prevent the suspect from escaping.

Once the communications are radioed to officers and they have the suspect under control, Nash moves on to another call.

The workday of a 9-1-1 dispatcher can be fast-paced and tense, making the job challenging. A veteran of 12 years, Nash explained that dispatchers have to multitask, use common sense and be able to handle stressful situations with calm, fast-acting intelligence.

Dispatchers have to learn to listen with a "split ear," that is, follow multiple conversations simultaneously, she said.

"You have to separate yourself - be compassionate and empathize but not be so involved," Nash said. "Calm translates to people who may be upset, panicky or excited."

Police dispatchers may have to field calls from someone accidentally dialing the emergency number to someone reporting a death, a burglary in progress or a traffic collision. When calls come in, the dispatcher must find out what is happening from the caller and enter all of the information into their Communication Aided Dispatch (CAD)) system.

The Pleasanton dispatch room holds several communication bays, with two to three dispatchers working at any given time answering one of three emergency lines. Each bay has several monitors for dispatchers, each displaying different information.

With CAD, the dispatchers can access in-house records, such as citations and reports, Nash said. Dispatchers can also access driver's license information, warrant and arrest records.

The information can be helpful to responding officers. For example, it may be helpful when answering a disturbance call to know if there is a history of assault at that location.

While the officer is en route to the call, Nash continues to add additional information, which the officer receives simultaneously.

In Pleasanton, 9-1-1 calls are answered within 3.7 seconds, and in 2001, the department received about 10,000 calls.

As the first emergency contact, the dispatcher can seem intimidating, said Nash. "People call the Pleasanton police as a last hope," she explained, adding that in addition to the emergency nature of the call, it can be compounded by other hurdles.

Dispatchers must be able to adjust from one call to the next quickly; a senior citizen may be calling one minute and the next, the caller may speak limited English. Plus, dispatchers must be detail-oriented and their typing skills must be solid. If subpoenaed, the typed transcription of the call may be called into a court, Nash said.

The process to becoming a dispatcher can be daunting. Nash recalled her feelings of inexperience when she took her written test. "I remember people throwing around '10' codes and acronyms," she said. "All I had was Perry Mason."

In addition to the written test, prospective dispatchers are interviewed and a background check is performed. If hired, training begins right away.

There is not special dispatcher school; it is all on-the-job training, Nash said. Sometime after beginning the job, dispatchers attend a three-week course approved by the Police Officer Standards and Training, or POST, which sets instruction standards for California law enforcement.

The training period lasts about nine months, Nash said. During that time, the dispatcher trainee spends time as a backup, shadowing a seasoned dispatcher.

Every day, the trainee is given an evaluation on his or her performance that provides timely feedback for corrections and improvement.

The job can be exciting, Nash said. Although generally dispatchers do not know the aftermath of a call after they've sent out officers, the Pleasanton department is different. "We're a small department," she said. "We have more direct contact with the officers and can get information from them."

She pointed to an overhead television monitor showing the Police Department's holding area.

Sometimes, she noted, she can see when an officer returns with a suspect, giving her a visual conclusion to what began with her pushing a button and saying into her headset: "9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

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