Hey 911 Dispatches

Don't take it.

I've worked in this type of environment for 13 years. The amount of people I've seen come & go. Majority of them very hesitant that they don't really think it is for them are usually the first to bomb out in training or a week after they've had the intense training.

It isn't a fun happy job (thank goodness for the fantastic people I've been blessed to work with), lets be honest, most people don't call police for happy stories. You do get a thick skin but that skin can still be broken, especially when some situations can be close to home.

Good luck with what ever you decide.

Additionally -- did I read that right?! You're required to pat down prisoners?!?!?! What in the F***? My comm center is behind two secured doors! Ha!

That is a little crazy, about the pat down. Never heard of that, it can be stressful.

Hi there,

I'm a 911/police dispatche(s)r and have been for about 10 years now. The things that struck me most about your post was you comments about handling prisoners and the pay.

Here (I'm in Canada) We have zero contact with any prisoners that may come in. Only contact we have with members of the public is either via phone or if there's a tour thru the station. We certainly aren't expected to search/pat down any unsavouries that may come thru.

The other thing was the pay. Yes it's a stressful job, yes shiftwork can be hard especially with a young family and the diet fitness aspect is also challenging at times. But the pay is excellent. I'm paid in excess of $30/hr with full benefits which is quite good I think..more than I ever made in a corporate/office setting.

Things to look out for in this job "my Fitness Pal" style. Poor snack choices, boredom eating, becoming inactive. There is ample lunch/break times to hit the gym and most police services will have gym facilities on site so utilize them. Steer clear of snack machines and tons of cream in your coffee (if you're so inclined) keep it to light cream and light sugar...I'm a coffee drinker so I'd never tell you not to.

This is a great job, helping people. Bad stuff happens (I've been pretty much thru it all, including an on duty officer death) but you'll build up a tolerance and copeing skills of your own. Best advise is learn to leave work at work. Make the door on the way out your magical portal to your own world and leave all work stuff behind. Easier said than done some days but the better you can do that early on the easier it will be.

WOW! jharvphoto nailed it. As a fellow dispatcher I echo his statements, although I wish I could say I get paid what he does!!! I work in a small/medium sized city but we're very competitive with pay, after 5 years of dispatching I'm in the $24 a hour range with my shift diff. You absolutely develop coping skills and find ways to manage the stress of the job. Ultimately if you are unable to you'll end up finding another job. Not sure of the size of your agency but I'd assume if you're doing prisoner searches it's quite small. We have about 100 Officers and 100 Firefighters that we dispatch for and it's a wonderful Law Enforcement family. The bond you develop with the people you work with will be unlike any other workplace.

Good luck!!!

Oops, DispatcheRs.

I know you're out there; I've seen your posts on the official nightshift thread. I wanted to reach out to you for thoughts/insight/advice.

Here is my situation:
I quit my waitressing job to become a full time student. One of my old customers reached out to me to say I should apply for the position of 911 Dispatcher for our county.
I went in last week to observe their call center. It turns out, that customer of mine is in charge of the place. Not much happened while I was there, just calls about power outages and kids throwing snow balls at cars. But there was still a lot going on. I soaked in everything I could. All in all, with the seemingly extensive training program, I thought I could perform well in this job. Would just have to cut down my classes to part time.
I sat down with the boss to discuss the position. He told me about the hours (part time, possible to go full time in the future) and the pay. The pay was a lot less than I expected (based on the research I had done beforehand), and a major disappointment. One of their responsibilities is to pat down the people who get arrested.
So anyway, I was thinking I wasn't going to go for it. Sh***y pay, no benefits, possibility of being knocked the f*** out by some crazy lady who just got arrested...I wasn't too thrilled about any of it. So, I figured better to just stay home and focus on school.
BUT!
That guy called me today wondering if I had been scared off from the position after my observation day. I was honest with him. I told him the pay didn't seem to match the responsibility and my other concern was not being able to leave work at work. I'm afraid that I'm going to get a bad call, be traumatized and never be able to let it go.
He said, once a new dispatcher can handle the calls independently, they can go full time, they earn $2 more per hour, plus county benefits. He said I would be able, over time, to not take my work home with me because I would naturally develop thicker skin. (Sure this thicker skin will translate to 10 pounds on the scale. Will have to exercise more.)

So, anyway, all you seasoned Dispatchers, what do you think I should know? Anything you want to share?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Sincerely,

Lee

Part of me wouldn't wish this job or career on anyone, apart from those on my revenge list. Once you start you'll never want to leave. For a variety of reasons this job and the work it entails really grows on you. It will ruin any thing else you ever do for a career. For me, I love that my life is dedicated to helping others when they need it the most. Although i enjoyed the challenge of loss prevention prior to being a dispatcher how can I justify to myself that I'm better off working for a greedy corporation? As others have mentioned we are all a family. I love going to training classes and feeling that instant rapport with other dispatchers. We understand each other on levels sometimes even better than our real families do. It's a very rewarding profession. So rewarding in fact that it overshadows all of the negatives:

The downside to public service is that it comes with a steep price. You'll miss out on family events and outings with friends. You'll miss out on holidays, your weekend will be in the middle of the week for many years, and if you're doing shift work your health will suffer (increased risk of cancer, for one, due to biorhythm disruption, not to mention being sedentary and the stress causing weight gain). You might not be able to get the time off you want, so planning trips with others is a headache. There's going to be overtime with little advanced warning. The thick skin that helps you survive the job can easily become a barrier to those muggles who know nothing about what we do. You'll get a big dose of reality and over time will have to work hard not to become a pessimistic cynic. And the public that we are here to help will cuss at you. They'll do everything they can, either purposely or not, to make the job as hard as possible. Even if you do everything right you'll still experience tragedies. Some nights you'll have no choice but to take work home with you, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It'll make you appreciate your own life all that much more, because you'll know from experience how suddenly it could end.

It's an amazing job and opportunity, and you'll meet some extraordinary people. But just be aware of the costs going in. My best advice is, if you don't already, get a very healthy sense of humor. Laughing is the best defense at not letting the stress change who you are.

Hope all this rambling helps...