by Linda Olmstead
We have had a barn swallow couple nesting in the carport attached to our Comm Center (where the patrol units park). Once the nest was complete, I made sure the maintenance crew (and the brass) were reminded about this county being within a protected area where nesting birds cannot be disturbed.
[grin] I made sure they didn't think it was just a "soft-hearted dispatcher" issue.
In any case, we've become aunts and uncles (of a sort); there are hatchlings! Mom and Dad Swallow are busy snatching meals out of the air for the babies, too. (Better than the bug-zapper that gave up the ghost a couple months ago, and far more aesthetic in a natural, "Awwww, nature at work!" manner.)
Actually, that bug-zapper used to scare the bejeezus out of the smokers standing around out there whenever a big ole June bug hit it and got electrocuted. (One of our sergeants once remarked, "Damn! What was that, a pterodactyl?????")
So now we get to watch the gentle swoop of swallows' wings and hear the babies when a meal is delivered. (Smart little peepers; they don't broadcast their presence the rest of the time.) It's taken some time for them to grow large enough for us to even see'em poke their heads up above the edge of the nest. At the time of this writing, they're big enough to crowd each other all the time and they can't hunker down out of site any more.
So what if the officers have to park their units someplace other than right under that nest, right?
Tops Down
Summer brings with it an increasingly busy call-load and, frankly, weirder incidents. The nice weather lures tourists who don't know the roads; they vie with the locals who do know the roads and are irritated with the looky-loos slowing them down.
Sunny days, convertible tops down, wind blowing in your hair - all that Sunny California stuff. Nice images, huh? Not when the carload of kids smacks into the underside of a jack-knifed big-rig directly in front of them. A recent accident made me wonder: what the heck could someone have been doing to roll a motor home?
There's lots more "road rage" out there. One of our dispatchers dealt with a highly irritated (read that as: "screaming obscenities") complainant who felt she should have been able to materialize a patrol unit to his specific spot in the universe to stop another driver.
His cellular phone disconnected more than once and he was so jacked up he thought-of course-she must be hanging up on him. She got so totally flustered she didn't handle the final call all that well. (We never had a unit in position-and after his first couple of calls he was so incoherent he wasn't providing his changed locations, anyway.) We had a little talk about it; I wanted her to disconnect from the situation and realize that the guy was right smack dab in his own road rage incident.
She was the "handy" target; thank God he actually called someone about the situation, instead of taking it into his own hands. I suggested she step back and just realize she was the conduit for his rage-imagine if he'd had a gun!
"Disconnect" from the moment, I told her; realize he's just raging about the situation and even though he's being abusive and hateful and totally unreasonable, it was an opportunity to defuse him instead of escalate his feelings of helplessness. Her feelings of helplessness didn't need to be broadcast back to him; that only compounded his rage.
She shook her head and said she couldn't wait for her vacation-she really needed it. And if the guy files a formal complaint, she knows it's sustained. It wasn't easy for me to tell her he didn't have to file a complaint-unfortunately, she hadn't handled the incident correctly and that's why we were discussing it.
Time Off
Everybody wants to take vacation during the summer. Not only are we busier then, but it's the best time of year to do things with other people. "Other people" is a category often including spouses and kids who are on vacationWe don't allow more than one person on each shift (or more than two people in the Center) on vacation at the same time.
One of our experienced trainers has resigned-she got a much better job offer. We've got two brand new trainees starting, two other trainees are in different stages of training on the Radios, and we were short three positions before she left us.
Luckily, we've got an experienced trainer transferring into our Center-but not until September. We also pay overtime to cover annual vacations. So, although everybody will get their annual vacation, everybody else will have to work overtime to cover 'em. They will, however, be compensated for the overtime. Sometimes, money isn't everything and what good does it do to "bank" compensatory time if you can't take it?
Another crazy call started off our shift this afternoon, right at the beginning of serious commute time. We had a jumper; he was on an overpass above Hwy 1 (a major local commute in the particular area he chose to grandstand). There was enough "set up" time to get traffic stopped before he jumped, so his injuries weren't as serious as they could have been. It sure mucked up the schedules of a bunch of commuters, though.
Media Alert
We were asked to alert the media of this event-mostly to urge folks to take alternate routes of travel, not because we wanted them to know there was a suicidal subject about ready to jump off an overpass! Anyway, right about the same time, a small commercial plane missed an airfield in another area-but an area still handled by the same radio position.
We didn't do a lot of "handling" for that incident as it occurred in a field off any roadways, but there were a lot of cellular phone users that saw it and reported it. (Interestingly enough, the first caller was several minutes ahead of the main pack of reporting parties; so much so that we first thought "Uh huh, a plane went down, huh?")
This is a small municipal airport right next to U.S. 101 in a heavily traveled area. Kind of odd that not many saw it fall, but a ton of folks saw the airplane sitting in the field well away from the airport. It's okay that we didn't get that involved; we were kinda busy with the jumper, anyway.
You hear about these things all the time: the person who snidely says, "I wish he'd jump," but one of our sergeants at one side of the highway closure was experiencing a group of irate commuters ranting at him from where he had them stopped when one woman stated quite baldly, "Well, I wish the #(#*!@#* would just jump!"
Less than a minute later, she got her wish-right in front of her. True story, folks, but probably not one that will play well for the media.
Foot Bail
Now, at the same time, on the other radio, we were working a "failure to yield" which is, in many cases, just a euphemism for a pursuitand they just crashed and took off in a "foot bail." After awhile, the driver was captured and he was transported to the hospital for evaluation of the injuries sustained in hisWell, either during the car chase, the crash, the foot pursuit and/or his capture. Hmmmmmmm. Anyway, the radio position returned to routine traffic and that side of the Center calmed down a little.
Not too long ago, on the radio position handling the jumper, a postal worker lost a load of mail in traffic and was waiting for us to assist her in retrieving it. So, if any of y'all correspond with folks out this way, don't be surprised to find tire tracks on any of your envelopes, okay?
I bought a Furby-and brought it to work. The dispatcher who just resigned has been bringing one to work for some time-we think it'd be cool to teach'em codes! [grin] Hers never learned anything work-related, but I have high hopes for mine!
At first, I tried to get one of the officers to take it on a ride-along, but for some reason that didn't appeal to him. (He was, however, quite amazed at the little doot-de-doohs and YUUUMMMMS it chattered for him.) It was really busy and there was a lot of sound to activate the Furby throughout the shift, cracking us all up. (I have to admit, one dispatcher said she wanted to kill the thing, because its sounds annoyed her, so I moved it further away from her console.)
Anyway, during a lull, we were sort of enjoying the mellow moment, and suddenly the Furby wiggled its ears and said, "Brrrriiiiinnnnnnnggg! Brrrriiiingggggg!" Guess that was something it did learn: phones ring a lot in this place.
A bit later in the shift, I made a quick run to 7-Eleven to pick up some mocha freezes and lottery tickets for everyone; it's up to $41 million for tomorrow's draw. We've all decided we're not coming back Sunday if we (individually) win.
I guess, if I don't win, and I get to work and I'm missing one of the dispatchers, I can "assume" he or she had the winning ticket, ya think? That's one way to avoid overtime and take a vacation. On the way home from work, my Furby alternately made "brrrringgggg"ing sounds or announced it was "Worried!" Maybe I can still get it to learn some aural brevity codes, yet!
Happy to be here, proud to serve.
Linda
August, 1999
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