It’s all mental
DispatcherDame's Diatribes
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3y ago
In the last few years, mental health care in law enforcement in general has become more of a priority than it has been in years past. But like a lot of things in the law enforcement realm, Dispatch is the last to know, or in this case, last to receive that message. We’re FINALLY being included in major incident debriefs and offered similar resources to the field. In practice, there’s still room for improvement. There recently was an officer involved shooting in my department, and the dispatchers on duty during the incident were invited to the debrief with the sworn side. Three of those dispa ..read more
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Overstaffed?! Only in my dreams...
DispatcherDame's Diatribes
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3y ago
The communications center that I work in is not unique in the fact that we are understaffed. I'd hazard a guess that the vast majority of comm centers are SEVERELY understaffed. I've been in dispatch for enough years to not be a newbie, but not be an old bitty yet. My center has been understaffed since before I started, but never at the low that it's at right now. We have officially dropped below 40% staffed. I work in a major metro area of California, with a pretty sizable amount of inbound calls. If you aren't a dispatcher, or you aren't aware of the inner workings, there's a generally ..read more
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Vegas - From Behind This Console
DispatcherDame's Diatribes
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3y ago
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve heard all about the tragedy in Las Vegas that left over 50 concertgoers dead, and hundreds injured. I was working a slow sector that night, so I had the Las Vegas Metro feed up and listened to it from very early on all the way until I was signing off my CAD for the night at 0600, when they were starting to talk about relieving the units that had long passed their off-duty time by many many hours in Vegas. After they had spent the night running towards the gunfire. Using their own bodies to shield helpless citizens. Dragging near lifeless bodies i ..read more
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August 12th, 2017
DispatcherDame's Diatribes
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3y ago
I am so thankful for all of you that follow me. Some of you are fellow dispatchers, some are LEO, some citizens, some are somewhere in between. On most of my tweets, I try to make it very public/citizen friendly. Occasionally, I'll tweet something that is more LEO oriented, but sometimes I tweet some very dispatch-specific things - things only other dispatchers would get. I'll get replies from citizens that clearly don't understand dispatching. And how can they? Unless you've done it or have seen it real-live-in-person, it's a difficult job to comprehend. And most of us dispatchers aren't ex ..read more
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So... What's new?
DispatcherDame's Diatribes
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3y ago
There have been many times in the last month that I’ve sat down and tried to write a blog post. But I’m finding myself at a loss for what I think you, my reader, would want to read. If you follow me on twitter, you know that I’ve been on a fatal streak.  Since I was released from FTO and on my own as a dispatcher, I’ve always had a black cloud - crazy 911s, pursuits, bad traffic collisions, etc. But summers are always crazy. This summer has been worse than other summers. I’ve worked more fatal incidents in the last month than the last 6 months prior. Doesn’t exactly make for go ..read more
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"Dame, Central. Status Check?"
DispatcherDame's Diatribes
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3y ago
Some of my fantastic followers have asked me what I've been up to, since I've had a drop in activity on Twitter. If you've been around here for a while, you've seen some of my rants about low morale, excessive overtime, and generally poor working conditions over the last year or so. It's gotten to a low recently that I didn't know my center could reach. So this is a time of heavy contemplation for me. I have many options available to me, and it's just time for me to take a step back, and figure out what is going to be best for me. Will this mean a change in my online presence? Possibly. Pro ..read more
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You know what I mean?
DispatcherDame's Diatribes
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3y ago
The training cycle for my department for dispatchers is pretty long in comparison to some other departments. You're hired, sent to the academy, come back to the center, and are in training for three-ish months. Then you go back to the academy for a bit, and are back in training at the center for three to four months. During each time after the academy, you're with the dispatch equivalent of an FTO (field training officer). I had 7 different FTOs over my training. You learn how to do the job, yes, but you also learn a little bit of their style and adopt bits and pieces that stick with you. I h ..read more
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February 20th, 2017
DispatcherDame's Diatribes
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3y ago
It's been a rough week. It started with a hit in my personal life on my Sunday, then a storm they named "Lucifer" as a little 1-2 punch on my Monday and Tuesday - which made my shifts long in feel & actual length, and busier than they've been in a long while. This week, for some reason, I've had a lot of death calls. People finding their loved ones that have passed. Suicides. Fatal traffic collisions. Hearing the impact over the phone of a vehicle hitting a pedestrian at high speeds. Calls that stick with someone for a while, and forces them to draw parallels with the worst of the worst ..read more
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"...Hello? Time Traveller?"
DispatcherDame's Diatribes
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3y ago
There's one 911 call that I think about almost every Valentine's Day. I feel like it was just yesterday... on a graves shift. 911 line drops into my ear, and it's an elderly woman that was by herself, who needed paramedics. Something that happens multiple times a shift. But this woman... was different. She didn't have shortness of breath, or chest pain, or pain from a fall. None of the "normal" chief complaints for elderly women. She had a very deep cut. On her leg. From a metal lid. That came from a can OF CAT FOOD. I WAS TALKING TO FUTURE DAME. ME! ​Only appropriate I think of this ca ..read more
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Phone Etiquette Basics
DispatcherDame's Diatribes
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3y ago
?: "Domino's Pizza, how can I help you?" ?: "PEPPERONI!" ?: "Sir, are you placing an order for a pepperoni pizza?" ?: "NO! YOU'RE WRONG! BELL PEPPERS!" ?: "So, a pizza with bell peppers and no pepperoni?" ?: "THAT'S WHAT I SAID!!!" ?: "Okay. What's your name?" ?: "WHY DO YOU NEED MY NAME? YOU DON'T NEED MY NAME!" ?: "Alright, I guess... what's your address? Where do we deliver this to?" ?: "YOU ALREADY HAVE MY ADDRESS!" ?: "No, sir, we don't. You didn't even give me your name..." ?: "JUST PING MY PHONE!" ?: "That's not how this... we can't do that." ?: "AHHHHHH I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, F***IN' C ..read more
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