by Linda Olmstead
Dispatch tape recordings are a little bit like traveling in a Time Machine. It's a beautiful day here, today: quite warm, with the sun shining brightly through our windows and the open back door. I've been working on a tape for court, documenting an injury accident on a snowy day just a couple of months ago. (We don't get snow here, as a general rule-certainly nothing that "sticks" for long!)
Immediately after we received the first report of the particular incident for which I'm making the tape, one of our sergeants goes in service and follows his "10-8" transmission with a direction for the dispatcher: "Look out the window! It's snowing again!" She responds, after a second, with "Oooooooooooh" Then everything breaks loose and that's the last time anyone expresses any charming, child-like appreciation of the weather.
It's an odd sensation, sitting here in short sleeves, listening to the incoming calls on the master tape recording: injury accidents in several locations, roads closed here, black ice over the summit of a mountainous highway over there, frantic callers stuck in snowed-in areas without chains or warm clothing (but they have their cell phones!), stuff like that.
Sometimes, however, "unauthorized transmissions" are a bit less innocuous. [sigh] There have been some doozies, all right. When everything is recorded, I guess one gets pretty cavalier about commentary after a few years. Most rookie dispatchers don't get caught on tape making editorial comments about callers, officers or situations they handle. (Not more than once, anyway. But a few years down the line, some folks get too comfortable with their role as Information Relay Point. Nobody really needs to hear their opinions, butthey share it anyway.) [ahem]
The prevailing belief is that a Custodian of Records can simply "snip" the embarrassing comments-or conversations-out of the recordings before they are submitted to court.
Subpoena Everything
Trust me, we can't always edit that stuff out of the tapes! And sometimes, the defense attorneys subpoena whole sections of tape covering all phone calls and all radio transmissions over a period of time-specifically edit-free. [cringe] Sure, nobody deliberately blurts out inappropriate comments or just assumes their commentary is acceptable behavior; it just happens, sometimes.
We are pretty comfy, here. We routinely express "Good mornings" and "Good nights" on the air when units go in service or off-duty. We don't even mind the occasional "Thank you" over the air-and I've heard one or two "My pleasure!" responses without getting all jacked up about it. (Each situation actually warranted some thanks and acknowledgment, okay!?!) The dispatchers refer to their co-workers as "my partner" whenever referencing actions taken by someone else in the room: "Stand by, my partner is checking on that now" or "My partner advises the caller sounded intoxicated." They don't refer to them by positions, such as "service desk" or "the previous dispatcher."
On the other hand, they do refer to me, and my partner Comm Sup, as "CS," (usually with "the" or "our" as a preposition). [clearing throat] Don't think we haven't heard other appellations matching those initials used to describe our supervisorial decisions
It's okay. My partner and I have thick skins. [grin] It's "why we make the big bucks," ya know. (No worse than investigators being called "defectives," I guess.)
And being called in the middle of the night when something goes awry is another expected responsibility of ours. Such as this one:
It seems a bad guy decided he didn't want to stop for some deputies and we took over the pursuit of his vehicle. It lasted forty-five minutes and was further complicated by our handling dispatcher experiencing some very distressing physical symptoms part way through it. (He was transported to a local hospital prior to the pursuit's conclusion.)
Three dispatchers were on duty: a 10-year veteran of this department with seven more years prior to these at another agency, and two rookies, one of whom wasn't yet cleared to work a radio unsupervised. There was no Comm Sup on duty at the time. The "greenest" rookie was performing call-taker duties; the other one was handling our second radio console (not the one with the pursuit).
Solo Radio
The radio tape is seamless; one minute there's the seasoned dispatcher and the next minute there's the 8-month dispatcher answering the units. He'd been working a radio solo for nearly two months, having already handled a few pursuits and other emergencies without any difficulty whatsoever. Well, you know dispatchers just don't hand an incident over in the middle of something-certainly not a pursuit!-regardless of how experienced your relief may beunder normal circumstances, anyway
Now, imagine this: Two Radio positions and a call taker. The pursuit is on Radio #1, handled by the veteran dispatcher. The rookie is handling Radio #2 and the really "green" one is answering the phones. At the time of the medical emergency within the Comm Center, the second dispatcher moves over to Radio #1 and calls an ambulance for his partnermeanwhile, seamlessly taking over the pursuit. (The ambulance dispatch point wants to do EMD with our dispatcher, but he's a tad bit occupied with the pursuit at the time)
The call-taker assumes Radio #2, which she's not yet "cleared" to handle by herself-training-wise-and continues to take incoming phone calls. An officer just going off-duty stood next to her, helping her interpret DL returns back to the units working in the field on that side of our dispatch areas. (You know: the complicated ones-it seems our officers don't stop that many people with good driving recordsgo figure!)
As the ambulance was pulling away from the Comm Center with the veteran dispatcher aboard, the pursuit terminatedand shots were fired.
As a result, a CISD session was later held for all participants, not just the officers. My partner Comm Sup, who's a member of the department's Peer Support Team, coordinated session arrangements and was able to bring the veteran in for it. (He was at home, resting, after having been released from the hospital a few hours after his arrival; nobody yet realized how serious his condition really was. )
I did not attend the session, but provided coverage in the Comm Center so all three of them could participate. They were very appreciative of the opportunity to safely express their concerns for the event they handledand the event that had occurred within the Center at the same time.
Pursuit Assist
The rookie dispatcher has said he had the other radio, Radio #2, turned up high so he could monitor the "green" dispatcher working itwhile handling the pursuit on Radio #1 and talking to the ambulance company and the allied agencies attempting to assist with the pursuit. He told me, "If anything had happened on the other radio position, I think my head would have exploded."
The bad guy could drive, folks. He reached speeds of 110 mph several times and much of the chase was at 90100 mph. He traveled through three countiesback into a couple of them a couple of times. We don't have a lot of units working all night long, either, which really complicated things. (The lack of back-up units contributed to the heightened sense of frustration for the original, veteran dispatcher, who has handled many an ugly and critical situation over the years.)
Nobody in the field had any idea of the turmoil within the Comm Center; they noticed the change of dispatcher and asked about that some time later, out of curiosity. Also, a few of their requests for specific notifications didn't get made in the usual timely fashion with which we handle'em and at first, they were concerned about that. After learning of the situation with the veteran dispatcher, that concern fizzled away.
Anyway, a copy of the tape will be shipped to our Academy for their library in addition to our keeping a copy, one is going to the Shooting Team, our Captain got a copy, and I'm giving a copy to each of the two dispatchers who worked the radio during the pursuit.
Oh, and the bad guy was one of those "three strikes" guys and the suspect in a kidnapping/rape. He was not seriously injured. None of our officers were injured, either. Justa dispatcher went to the hospital.
We now know his symptoms that night were precursors to a heart attack. He'll be okay, by the way. He's been given the choice of making several major lifestyle changes (stop smoking, eat healthy meals instead of fast food, develop an exercise, plan, etc.) or die. He's wisely chosen Option # 1.
We'll still have the pleasure of his company after he recovers from this incident-and he'll be able to exchange some more "Good mornings" and "Good nights" with the officers on the air.
Happy to be here, proud to serve.
Linda
April, 1999
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