Happy Dispatcher Week!

Planned workout: none
Actual Workout: 20 sit ups and some planking

For those of you who do not know, it's National Public Safety Telecommunicator's Week.  Actually, today is the last day.  It ends in a mere five hours.
For me, this year, it doesn't mean much.  Last year, my hubby took me on a cruise for NPSTW.  The year before that I was at another agency that made the week special.  What I will do this year, however, is reflect on a day in the life of a Dispatcher:

Acronyms, Acronyms, Acronyms!
Almost everything we write and say is a code,signal,or acronym.  This is an actual conversation I could have:

"Can you run a DS in LEADS and look in CAD to see if we have a 19 number for that person?"
"Clear."
"If so, advise them I will be enroute to 17 his 43.  ETA 20 minutes."
"Clear sir, will this need an OHLEG?"
"Negative"
"Clear, 17:52"

Yup, that's how I talk 8 hours a day. Sometimes it's fun, other times it's exhausting.


Then there are the calls, Oh yes the calls!  My favorite are the callers that start with "I just have a quick question"  Those typically take 20 to 30 minutes.  My least favorite are the tragic calls.  I have taken calls from wives who husbands have just died after a long battle with illness.  I have taken calls from people who never make it to the hospital.  I have taken calls from families at their worst moments and behaviors. 

On the flip side, I have taken reports that there are people in are bars drinking (Yep, pretty sure I knew that), a report of getting short changed at a fast food place, a roommate borrowed an article of clothing with out permission, a theft of hair (extensions), a cat stuck in a sewer drain, and UFOs.  By the way, city people, small (usually colorful) planes flying low to the ground over fields are NOT crashing.  It is called crop dusting.  They do this to the fields near highways too.  I'm pretty sure there are few calls left that could surprise me.

Also, I know random things, like what time bars I would never set foot in close.  And that Ronald McDonald has a warrant in the state of Ohio.  And who's cows live near what roads.   You know, important information like that.

Dispatchers are a special brand of people with a very, very thankless job.  So, the next time you call a local agency to report something, or even just to find some arbitrary information that no one else will know, thank the person who answered the phone.  Sometimes stuff like that gets us through the day.