Recently I began reading Adam Plantinga’s book, 400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman. First, I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Like the description states, it’s a “laconic, non-nonsense, dryly humorous” book where Plantinga “tells what he’s learned from 13 years as a patrolman.” Each section, such as “21 Things Cops Know About Thugs And Liars,” to “19 Things Cops Know About Working With The Public” is laugh-out-loud funny, especially if you are also in public safety. I believe at one point I shot milk out of my nose. Plantinga’s gritty look at what it’s actually like being a street cop not only amused me but got me thinking about those things that we, as 9-1-1 dispatchers, also know. Like Plantinga, I also want to express that I am making generalizations based on my experience. Here are eight things that public safety telecommunications operators know.
4 Things 9-1-1 Operators Know
1-People who call you are having a bad day. It never failed no matter how long I worked in 9-1-1 or how many calls I had answered, I always expected to hear a pleasant, happy voice on the other end of the line. Maybe this came from my experience answering other phones, like my home phone for example, but those usually were happy friends and family calling to say hi or the occasional telemarketer or salesman who are paid to have a cheerful voice. In 9-1-1, on the other hand, people are calling because something bad either is happening or already happened to them. They are not calling to have a friendly chat therefore the tone of their voice and the nature of their words have a tendency to reflect their distress.
2-People who say, “I know this isn’t an emergency, but…” really don’t know that. If they did, they would never pick up their phone and dial an emergency number set-aside for people who were really having an emergency without feeling so guilty that they couldn’t actually dial the number. When a caller starts out a conversation with this statement they realize that you might not believe they are having an emergency but they do and therefore they have the right to call with a lame platitude.
3-If you forget to mute your headset, it is going to happen at the very worst moment-most likely right when you are saying something very sarcastic or you burp. Most operators have flipped the switch to mute themselves so many times they could do it in their sleep. But that one time, usually when you have someone either super important or super litigious on the line, you are going to accidentally not switch it all the way or bump it back on. That way when you say something like, “As if, asshat,” not only will the caller hear you loud and clear but it will be recorded in a publically accessed area for the rest of your life.
4-When you say, “9-1-1, Where is your emergency?” and you hear a child’s voice on the line, you immediately become super 9-1-1 Operator. You sit straight up. Your hearing becomes uber-tuned in. Your eyesight sharp. All your focus is on helping this child. Children are the only callers where in the back of your mind you’re not trying to figure out what kind of BS they are trying to pull.
4 Things Dispatchers Know
1-Officers love dispatchers with bedroom voices. Not the super syrupy, I’m trying so hard to sound sexy voices, but those voices that just ooze appeal, like Kathleen Turner as Jessica Rabbit. If you have to listen to someone talking for 10-12 hours straight why wouldn’t you want it to be something fantasy inducing? One exception is if Ms. Rabbit doesn’t really know what she’s doing and you need help NOW. In that case, the dispatcher can sound like Helen the lady from the anti-smoking ad as long as she’s good at what she does.
2-Sometimes an officer really wants a back-up even when they say they don’t. Whether it’s the tone of their voice or the information on the call, sometimes you just know that getting a second officer to that location is the right thing to do. The officer might be trying to convince himself or his buddies that “I’ve got this,” but if you frame it like, “I copy, but I’m going to just get someone rolling your way,” they get back-up and still save face.
3-There might be, and often is, drama in the radio room but it can never flow out into the field. This dispatcher might be ticked at this other dispatcher for anything from stealing her lunch to taking her husband, but both have a job to do and that includes putting officer safety first. So no matter what happens, bickering needs to be put aside. The officers really don’t care about your personal gripes with each other.
4-Officers have bad days. Sometimes it comes out as a snarky response or a less than speedy acceptance of a call, but we don’t need to take it as a personal affront. Maybe he or she just had an argument with their significant other, or their son is failing math or a myriad of other life-issues. If we forget to take everything with a grain of salt and remember that officers are human too, our response could start an all out war of wills. And nobody really wins those.
There are so many things that working in 9-1-1 and radio taught me. Public safety has its own unique lessons about the public, our coworkers and ourselves. If you’ve got some time, stop and think about the things you know and definitely pick up Plantinga’s book.
Michelle Perin
Michelle Perin has been a freelance writer since 2000. In December 2010, she earned her Master’s degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Indiana State University.
