Dispatchers provide link between calm and chaos
May 1—April 14 through 20 was National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. The week is just one out of the 52 weeks a year that a small staff in the basement of the Dickinson County Courthouse works 24/7 answering 911 calls, dispatching first responders, and providing a calming voice when someone's life is turning upside down.
County Commissioners signed a proclamation during their April 18 meeting to recognize the work they do.
"Public Safety Telecommunicators are the first and most critical contact our citizens have with emergency services," Commissioner Craig Chamberlain said reading from the proclamation. "Public Safety Telecommunicators are the single vital link for our law enforcement officers, firefighters and medics by monitoring their activities by radio, providing them information and ensuring their safety."
The first 911 system went live Feb 16, 1968, in Alabama. Through the 1970s and into the 1980s states started getting on board and the technology became more sophisticated. In Kansas, the system rolled out in 1983.
Historically, telecommunicators were the secretaries at police and sheriff departments. As 911 grew, the job description changed, said Emergency Communications Director Emily Papa
"They're not secretaries anymore," she said. "They're still classified as secretarial, but they're not. They're technically the first responder. They are the first person that makes contact with a caller. The first person that officers talk to when they go on traffic stops and they are the ones that send the medics. We are not secretaries."
Having a week devoted to their work helps shine a light on what they do and the role they play in handling emergencies.
"We do a lot of the same work as fire, EMS, and law enforcement," she said. "We just aren't there in person."
She knows people often get irritated when they call and are asked a slew of questions.
"They still see us as secretaries, 'you just answer the phone — just give me what I want'" she said. "That's not how it works anymore. We do have a lot of questions, especially on medical calls. We're not trying to get people diagnosed, we're not trying to be doctors. We're just trying to gather up enough information for the medical unit so they know what they need to take inside with them. We're trying to paint a picture so they can visualize what they're going to walk into."
Papa has been taking the calls, relaying lifesaving information, and calming distraught callers for 22 years. She said it is not a job for everyone, which is why dispatch centers across the country report high staff turnover.
In 2023, the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch and the National Association of State 911 Administrators collected four years of data, which suggest the average vacancy rate in 911 centers across America was about 25%.
"It's not an easy job," Papa said. "A lot of people come into it thinking it's easy. They don't understand when they start that they may hear someone's last breath. Or you have to try and calm a parent down who just woke up and their baby's not breathing."
After the call, it's the not knowing what happened to the person on the other end of the line after the police or ambulance showed up, that bothers many of the dispatchers, she said.
Sometimes they will seek out the information, but the fast pace of the work often prevents that.
"Most of the time when we get done with one thing, we're right on to the next," she said. "They could get off the phone doing CPR with someone for 45 minutes and then the next phone call they get in is someone complaining because there's cows out."
There is no downtime in a 12-hour shift and labor laws are different for dispatchers. They don't get a lunch break; they eat at their station. Papa does, however, encourage them to take three 15-minute breaks during their shift, especially if they have just finished a difficult call.
She said the dispatchers who make a long-term career out of it are often introverts who have learned how to shut down certain parts of their personality.
When she started, she had been working in the healthcare field for 10 years. She didn't know what dispatching entailed. She just knew she needed a career change.
"I applied for the dispatch job and a position at Blue Cross Blue Shield and was offered both jobs on the same day," Papa said. "There are some days I kick myself (for choosing dispatch)."
Sometimes it is the little things and the occasional thank you that provide the rewards that remind her and her staff why they do what they do.
One of the communications officers, Kyla Dean, received two thank you letters in one week from residents who she was able to stay on the phone with and give them the reassurance they needed as they waited for other first responders to arrive.
"It's those little moments knowing that they made a difference," she said.
