After 39 years in public safety communications and 20 years sitting at a console answering 9-1-1 calls and coordinating police, fire and EMS field units by radio, I’m really retiring. I won’t be adding new material to this Web site or even tending to it. But it will remain for awhile as a potential reference. I’ll be watching my email, but replies will be “iffy.” My eternal thanks to Alan Burton for sharing so much information and inspiration, and for his confidence in my abilities, both for dispatching and writing. He is still my hero.
For those continuing along in the profession, be proud of what you do. The best 9-1-1 calls I’ve ever heard are the ones that made the personal connection. Use your name and the “I” word. Recognize your potential impact on each and every person you contact, either at the front counter or on the telephone or radio.Don’t try to save the entire world. Just do one good thing for one person during each shift. It makes an impact.
Take care of yourself. Dispatching is tremendously stressful, and a long career can take a toll in many different physical and emotional ways. Develop a team of supporters. Move towards “the rocks,” the people who give you energy, and move away from those who take energy away.
Prioritize your time—you’ve heard it before: family, friends, dreams and goals first, and only then your job. The ultimate goal is: no regrets.
Find a hero, pick out his/her strengths and strive to follow that person’s example. Identify a mentor who will support and guide you, and help you improve.
In turn, be someone else’s hero. Put out your hand to pull a colleague up. Move another person up the ladder ahead of you. Share your knowledge and experience, either individually or with a group. Hopefully I have done some of this, both in-person and through my writings about the profession.
I started as a civilian fire dispatcher in February, 1976 at the fire alarm office adjacent to Station 2 at 1915 Henry Street, Berkeley (CA), I was among the second group of three civilians each that they hired to replace firefighters at a cord-type, telephone switchboard that connected the alarm office and seven firehouses. We answered routine and emergency 10-digit telephone numbers and (later 9-1-1 calls from the early Alameda County 9-1-1 system. We also coordinated fire units on the radio (on 154.19 MHz), and monitored the city’s Gamewell firebox system that rang bells and printed out codes on paper tapes.
In 1984 the Fire Alarm Operator position was eliminated in a city budget move in response to State Proposition 13 (that limited how and how-much property taxes could be increased. The FAO position was replaced by the position of Public Safety Dispatcher (PSD). Existing FAOs were allowed to transfer and almost everyone did.
The police-fire center was located in city’s first combined police-fire civilian comm center (previously sworn BPD officers) It was on the second floor of the 1939-era, Hall of Justice Building at 2121 McKinley Avenue. The Henry Street fire alarm office was closed after the physical move was completed.
After the FAO/PSD change, the different types of incoming calls and duties caused some of the FAOs to resign from the police-fire center. Over a period of time, new PSDs were hired from the outside, and the FAO positions were no more. During the transition to PSD, officers sometimes continued to work in the comm center for overtime as Control (radio dispatching). The police department’s civilian Police Service Assistant position was also used to fill call-taking duties.
The police-fire comm center had been upgraded in 1970 with a conveyor belt to system to transport IBM incident entry cards between the two main areas: Dispatch (call-taking and Control (radio dispatching.). The upgrade included a new four-channel Motorola, UHF radio system (460 MHz) that included remote receivers around the city to improve officers’ portable radio coverage on HT100 radios.
I retired as a Sr. PSD in 1999 to write and edit the printed edition of Dispatch Monthly, and later the on-line edition, Concurently, I was a sworn Berkeley Police Reserve officer (#692), sworn in on March 18, 1974. For 41 years it gave me a valuable double-perspective on dispatching, to hear both sides of the radio, learn geography and what was happening on the street.
That’s really it. The future is up to you. Learn, be involved, take control. There are a tremendous number of critical projects in-progress right now within public safety communications. They will affect thousands of lives for decades. it’s an exciting and dynamic time. But it takes participation by those in the industry—those who know it best—to make it successful. Join APCO and NENA, participate on a committee. Contribute feedback. Help make the future better. It’s entirely in your hands. — Gary Allen
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