|
|
|
||||||||
I have been a police dispatcher for 9 years. I love it. Basically you direct all the traffic on the radio--dispatching the runs, responding to the officers' request & sorting out numerous transmissions at once. It can be difficult. It is usually stressful. It's often misunderstood. Dispatchers are faceless--if you're lucky! If you're unlucky or make a bad call --everyone gets to see who you are. (I've been lucky!)
Reasons to be a Dispatcher:
1. desire to repeat the same information over and over, only to have the officer say, "can you repeat that?"
2. desire to never eat at work. Every attempt to do so is blocked by the sudden flurry of radio traffic that begins the moment food enters your mouth.
3. desire to be second guessed by the news media and every single tax paying citizen who has ever watched, "Rescue 911."
4. desire to work in an environment without temperature control. The airconditioning kicks on in December and the heat cranks up in July.
5. desire to go from calmly dispatching to instant high stress when an officer comes on the radio in foot pursuit--or gasping for help.
[ sound byte of an assistance ]
Click here to hear actual dispatch --at least until mine is in place!
Seriously...
The real reason a dispatcher remains a dispatcher (other than to pay the mortgage!) is to aid the officer on his/her shift get home alive. That single reason is why dispatcher s deal with the downside elements of the job.
Law Officers deserve our respect and support. They embody and enforce the laws which separate civilization from chaos. Assaulting an officer is essentially an assualt on each and every law abiding citizen. The line between lawlessness & civilization appears to be growing thinner each day. Sadly, so does the blue line of those sworn to protect us.
Index: [home] [family] [police dispatch]