Comments on: Dispatcher Used Web to Locate At-Risk Woman

By: imnotrich

imnotrich — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:25:18 +0000

Having access to google maps (much more up to date than our Intergraph CAD map) and various other research sites has been invaluable over the years. Same for access to the CHP’s website. When CHP call answering queues are 20-30 minutes on the PRIORITY line for other agencies, we can still get info off the CHP site. And if we need to get info to CHP in a hurry we can also contact CALTRANS – they have a CAD link to CHP.
But internet access needs to be monitored. One of our employees used company equipment to post photos on her myspace of her attending a pride parade (on a day she had claimed she was sick and didn’t come into work).

By: Bethany

Bethany — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 01:41:54 +0000

I am a dispatcher/call-taker and educated in evidence collection which included a class dedicated to conducting research via the Internet so I know exactly how valuable a tool the Internet is for investigations!

However, at my job, us dispatchers/call-takers (we wear both hats here) are the only city employees who have had the Internet taken away from us. That’s right! We, whose sole job is “communications” have had the most valuable communcation tool in the world taken away from us!

We are unable to do something as simple as give directions to a citizen or as life-saving as finding an address outside the city for a business where one of our detectives was in trouble….yes, that really happened and the “fix” was to give us a phone book….

By: Brandon Cox

Brandon Cox — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:40:12 +0000

It would be great if we had access to the internet. Unfortunately our agency doesn’t give us access to the internet. Nor do they seem to view our Dispatchers as adult human beings, since we are the only division that could use it to assist with information collection like the Dispatcher in this article. I am very happy to hear that things ended well. I could only hope that eventually our agency will break the mold into the 21st century and follow the mainstream.

By: niole

niole — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:42:40 +0000

I would venture to say this isn’t the first time that a quick thinking dispatcher used the computer (aka their work tool) to help solve a crime!

This was one of the primary reason we got and have kept internet access in the comm center- too many times we have had more luck finding what we need to know thru the net, not NCIC/law enforcement databases!