At the other end of the line

During an emergency, everyone knows that you need to call 911 for help. And when you do, you expect that there will be someone on the other end of the line to offer help and provide a reassuring voice.

But, who are the people on the other end of the line? They are the first line of communication when help is needed. They are the faceless voices who send the help that you need on what may be the worst day of your life. They are 911 dispatchers.

While anyone 18 years or older with a clean criminal background check can apply to become a 911 dispatcher, it takes a special person to wear the headset, according to Ohio County Dispatcher Director David Bullock.

Bullock said to be a dispatcher one has to be a compassionate person who cares but can separate themselves from the situation in order to get the job done.

“Someone who cares about people, wants to help and is compassionate,” he said. “You have to be quick on your feet and think outside the box. Not everything is always straight-forward. You have to multi-task. We have to be able to talk on the phone while typing and dispatching someone out. There is a lot to handle at once and still keep your composure.”

Bullock said that the job isn’t just about having the desire as there is a lot of technology dispatchers have to deal with as well.

“Dispatchers have to be able to work well with chaos. They have to be therapists and a babysitter. They have to work well under pressure. There are times when you don’t have time to think,” said Dispatcher Jessica Cox, who has worked at Ohio

County 911 for over four years.

While Bullock said that no day is the same, dispatchers in Ohio County deal with an average of 50 calls for police, fire and EMS a day. Bullock said they get a lot of transport for EMS calls but the biggest call volume is for law enforcement. When a call comes in, the dispatcher answers “Ohio County 911 where is your emergency?’

“Location is our biggest thing. If we don’t know where someone is we can’t get anyone to them,” he said.

The dispatcher will also gather the name and phone number of the caller and then get into the details of what happened, when it happened and who is involved.

The CAD - Computer Aided Dispatch, automatically populates the dispatcher’s screen with the number, phone provider and the tower the call hits when a call to 911 is received.

“We can’t solely rely on that for location so we have to ask. The map will pop up to approximately where it thinks the call is coming from. It gives us a general idea,” Bullock said. “Location information is important.”

Bullock said people should always pay attention to their location, especially when driving. Mile markers and road names are helpful bits of information.

When a call comes in, CAD will tell the dispatcher which agencies to call for that area and it is up to the dispatcher to determine what type of help is needed. Bullock said there are protocols to follow for nearly every type of emergency situation.

Any first responder will tell you that dealing with tragedy and emergencies can be difficult at times and take a personal toll.

Cox said the job can affect her personally both in good ways and bad ways. It has helped her to stay calm when dealing with personal issues in the outside world because she has learned how to deal with stressful situations at work.

“It does (affect you) but after being here for so long, you just learn how to cope with it in different ways,” she said. “You don’t always get bad calls. I’ve taken some bad calls and they do affect me but there are always ways to deal with it. Certain calls will always stick with you no matter what. If there is a bad day here then all your bad calls come back. If you have a good day here then you don’t think about it as much.”

When training at the academy, dispatchers are told that, “We get everyone’s worst day.”

“So every day for us is somebody’s worst day, but that is part of the fulfillment of our job – that we are able to help everyone we can during the worst time they have experienced,” Bullock said.

“There are those rewarding calls too though,” Cox said.

Cox is one of two dispatchers who have helped deliver babies while answering 911 calls.

“Those are the rewarding calls. It is good to know that I don’t always have to deal with the bad,” she said. “I got to give the mother the time of birth.”

Bullock said Ohio County is fortunate that they are able to find out the outcomes of many of their calls.

“In this field, all across the country, a lot of dispatchers don’t ever know the outcome of a call,” he said. “We’ve got some great people that help keep us updated on the outcome and that’s probably one of the best parts about here specifically. We have a great team who let us know a good or bad outcome so we get some sense of closure that bigger agencies don’t always get.”

Ohio County Sheriff Adam Wright said he is extremely proud of the men and women who answer the calls to 911 in Ohio County.

“They are vital to our day-to-day operations. We couldn’t do our jobs without them,” Wright said. “They are the unseen heroes. During an emergency you see the fire, the police, the EMS pull up but they are the ones at the other end of the line who guided us there.”