First babies of 2024
Jan. 2—Editor's note: This article has been changed to accurately reflect the status of 9-1-1 dispatchers in Boulder County as first responders.
At the Boulder County Communications Center, dispatchers work tirelessly year-round to ensure public safety is a priority. These communication technicians are the first point of contact for individuals in distress.
Although the job is typically romanticized in films and on TV, dispatchers working for the county said it is anything but glamorous.
"The worst part is that we don't know what happens when people hang up the phone," said Serena Van Dyke, a Boulder County dispatcher. "We don't know whether people live or die."
Greg Jones, who has been working as a dispatcher for over 24 years, said that while it's exciting sometimes, it can also be daunting.
"It's a hard job because people will see it in a police show or movie and think it's glamorous ... " said Jones. "You have to be a team player in here because if you don't, then things quickly get out of hand."
Jones recalled one day when a caller was frantically speaking as four gunshots rang out over the connection. Jones couldn't make out what the woman was saying so he transferred the call to Dispatch Supervisor Amy Valle. Valle, who has been a dispatcher for 22 years, knew just what to do.
Valle speaks fluent Spanish and discerned from the call that an armed suspect had broken into the woman's residence. When Valle pressed further, the caller said she had been shot and her friend was in her bed. After being shot, the woman fled to the bathroom, locked the door and called 911.
"She got shot in the stomach ... she stopped answering questions so I thought she was dead," said Valle.
After a couple of minutes, Valle figured out the caller had stopped answering questions because she was crawling on the floor to see if her friend in the bed was alive. The caller's friend had been shot and killed.
"Amy then told her to put pressure on the wound and saved this woman's life," Jones added.
Dispatchers are in charge of communicating with more than 22 fire, emergency, medical, and rescue agencies. There are four different dispatch stations in the office — the data channel, the fire channel, the law enforcement channel, and strictly call-takers. The employees at the communication center cycle between the four dispatch stations.
Boulder County has four dispatch centers; one in Longmont, Boulder, the University of Colorado Boulder, and one run by the sheriff's office that dispatches for police in Erie, Louisville, Lafayette, and Nederland.
A large number of distress calls are received by dispatchers annually. According to Communications Center Director Steve Silbermann, Boulder dispatchers receive around 145,000 calls per year, of which 41,000 are 911 calls. Out of all the calls, dispatchers create a call to service for roughly 130,000 of them, according to Silbermann.
Jones said dispatchers never know what their workday will look like. He described another event in which a suspect lit himself on fire and Jones overheard the officer at the scene get burned by the suspect who was resisting arrest.
"One day I walked in at 6 a.m. and it should've been dead. There was an officer yelling and I couldn't make out what she was saying. The sergeant took over and said that the suspect of a disturbance swallowed rubbing alcohol and lit himself on fire," Jones said.
When Valle was asked how she emotionally dealt with handling intense emergencies, she said that peer support from other dispatchers was far more effective than therapy. Valle also said that what helped her find peace was speaking to sergeants at the crime scene or occasionally speaking to the victims themselves. Both Valle and Jones recalled that meeting the shooting victim and said seeing her doing well set them at ease.
"Like Amy said, meeting (the victim) was therapeutic ... it's hard to talk to family about these things because they don't understand," said Jones.
Although dispatchers are the first ones to respond to 911 calls, up until August of last year they were not recognized as first responders in Boulder County. However, on Aug. 16, 2022, the Boulder County Commissioners passed a resolution designating them as such, joining other municipalities like El Paso and Douglas Counties as well as the University of Colorado Boulder, Anschutz and Colorado Springs campuses.
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"When we pick up the phone, we take the brunt of it," Van Dyke said. "It does make it harder to process sometimes because people hear us but they don't see us."
Jones established a call to action for those placing calls to Boulder County dispatch.
"Have patience," he said. "You have to paint a picture for us. We have to be able to see what you're seeing. It's very easy to forget that we are just sitting in a room."
