A 911 dispatcher reveals her most disturbing experiences on the job (Reddit Ask Me Anything)

read it ask me anything I've been a nine one one dispatcher for 30 years ask me anything first off kudos to you for doing your service and helping people daily thank you now to the questions what is the most disrespect you've been shown either in public or in a call has someone ever tried to charge you with a crime due to their own era have you ever had a call so bad that you wanted to jump out of the chair and drive over to the location to help one surprisingly it is usually from officer slash M's firefighters they truly have no clue how much we do and don't understand why they aren't our first and only priority but the most disrespected I've ever felt was from another dispatcher I was working a shift on the ambulance and another unit was having trouble locating a street because the caller wasn't using the new street name from the 9-1-1 addresses but the name that old-timers have used for yours so I got on the radio and told the unit where to find the road so the dispatcher on duty called me and told me to stick with trying my ambulance he would take care of the directions for the other units that he damn sure didn't need my help he did finally apologize days later when he realized that no one else on duty that day knew what road it was and the man's condition was serious enough he could have died if he had not gotten care in time but that one cut to the quick to a crime number but I've had many many officers try to blame me when they didn't take a call or didn't want to take a call or try to write me up because I wouldn't do a callback on a holdup alarm or a panic alarm or because I refused to do a death notification over the phone each time they were the one who ended up in trouble 3 I've had minute but the one that instantly comes to mind is when I had a call from a six-year-old girl who said daddy was hitting mommy and you could actually hear the slaps and punches she was so scared and crying the house was on the county line and she just knew she was the third house past the post office our Sheriff's Office tried to pawn it off on the other county and they kept saying it was ours finally I cussed both deputies and told them to get down there and figure out jurisdiction later I was so mad have you ever cried on a call have you ever gotten a call from someone you knew do you see a therapist or do you just deal with the stress of the job on your own ok 1 I haven't cried on a call that I can remember I have have shed a few tears after a couple - yes took many many calls for family and friends worked 15 years in the county I grew up in semicolon as dispatch and Em's 3 I've never seen a therapist I deal with it on my own they offered it to us after the Oklahoma City bombing and after the third of May 1999 tornadoes in Oklahoma City but I've never felt like I needed it and I do not take any kind of anxiety meds have you had any experiences that were more on the spooky eerie side if so give me the spookiest if you would over the years I've had several where I would get a first party call saying they didn't feel well and asked for an ambulance when Em's would get there the patient would be deceased and paramedics would swear they'd have been dead for hours and there is no way could have called no one else would be in the residence and nothing would appear to have been disturbed so either a ghost called me or someone else was in the house pretending to be the patient the most recent of these was less than a month ago these always make the hair on the back of my neck stand up what can we do to make your job easier know your location be aware of your surroundings please stop putting yourselves in a position to be a victim answer the questions we ask we ask them for a reason thank you for asking this do you ever get to hear resolution to the calls you take or do you kind of just get left on the cliffhangers luckily I've always worked for agencies where I can find out the end result sometimes it's great other times it heartbreaking has anyone ever called because they shoved something up their ass and couldn't get it out unfortunately yes of course their story as always they fell on it had a full-size shampoo bottle bottles sex toys food it's just weird sometimes and takes everything you have not to laugh nine-one-one wat emergency I shoved a whole bag of jelly beans up my ass what a waste of jelly beans if they are still in the bag they are generally fine in my experience how you did you end up being a nine one one dispatcher do you wish you chose another profession or do you enjoy it I actually applied to the hospital business office for clerical work when I was 19 ended up working in the ER running a ten line switchboard and dispatching ambulances I love my job I can't imagine doing anything else I have been a reserve police officer a volunteer firefighter and EMT over the years but those were always my second job dispatch is where my heart is I saw a YouTube video of a little girl named Savannah's Helmsley I think her dad looked like he was having a heart attack he started to call 911 too ill to talk so little five-year-old Savannah took over with ask me Anna things in calm and presence of mind do the kids sometimes surprise you what about the opposite a kid who is useless what do you do in that situation what do you do to calm down a hysterical person trust me kids are the best usually cause they have no idea how serious the situation really is sometimes you have to get creative when you ask questions I've had many amazing kids over the years a five year old cooled ones his dad was stabbing his mother he got a phone hit his little sister and called me was so proud of that kid firstly I want to thank and appreciate you for your effort in work and to post the question as well as reply to other comments have there ever been any calls from suicidal victims or people who call about someone else trying to suicide and has anyone pranked you before serious pranks that are well thought out clearly plan to deceive not those that order burgers etc thank you for your thanks and yes I've spent many hours on hee phone talking with suicidal callers trying to learn anything that can help us locate them this was before we were given a map a cell phone caller themselves we just got the nearest tower location other times someone has locked themselves in a room or a bathroom with a knife or a gun and sometimes when they will just tell you they are going to kill themselves tell you what to go to find them because they don't want their family to be traumatized by finding them sometimes they will hang up the phone sometimes you hear the gunshot and the body fall and the ones I hate the most are the revenge suicides where they set it up so a certain person is the one that finds them and leaves are no saying why was all their fault as for the pranks nothing major like swatting or anything but we've had people call in a major rag or a possibly shooting on the far side of town knowing that would pull all the resources and rob a place on the other side of town we've had numerous bomb threats called into the courthouse simply because someone didn't want to show up to their court date all they didn't have the money to pay their fines never ceases to amaze me what people will do on the more lighthearted side of things what's the weirdest funniest call you've gotten had a lady called me and said that she could hear a woman screaming and it sounded muffled she just knew that someone was being kidnapped when officers arrived and located the source it was actually a big girl a bullfrog she was hearing she lived in the city and had never heard one was legit afraid that someone being kidnapped what was the most disturbing call you have gotten I was working in the Oklahoma City area during the bombing of the Murrah Building in 1995 and the third of May 1999 tornadoes but other than those one the four-year-old who was literally on fire she survived but it was rough going she is an amazing adult now you could hear her screaming in the background firemen said her skin was just falling off her body our department offered a song a counseling because of it what are some brilliant ways that caller alerted you without people around them say catter getting suspicious I've had them call and act like they are talking to their mother call and lay the phone down so we can hear what's going and called the other party by name someone we were very familiar with I hate these calls so much and feel so helpless do you have any examples of your 9-1-1 dispatcher skills helping you in face-to-face situations like real-life emergencies over time you learn the tones of voices my kids and ex-husband hate it I'm like a human lie detector my officers have learned to trust me when I tell them that even though the caller says things are good that something isn't right and they need to check it out what happens to people that call 911 to Padres ins usually they are told to call the non-emergency line if they keep calling for stupid reasons they can get a ticket for misuse of 9-1-1 there are some calls that really shouldn't be on a 9-1-1 but i will let it slide because I can handle it quicker and get them off my line and for all I know this may be the worst thing that's ever happened to them and so for them it is an emergency no question just thank you for what you do not everyone could do that job you are certainly hidden behind the scenes in the world of public service and you deserve all the appreciation I can give are there some calls that made an impact in you that you still think about till this day I have a handful I was working in the Oklahoma City area during the bombing of the Murrah Building in 1995 in the 3rd of May 1999 tornadoes but other than those one the four-year-old who was literally on fire she survived but it was rough going she is an amazing adult now you could hear her screaming in the background firemen said her skin was just falling off her body our Department offered us all counseling because of it to the autistic two-year-old who was dipped in hot water by his mother and her boyfriend 3 the elderly man left almost forgotten in a back bedroom in his own filth half starved while the family was literally eating a steak dinner in the kitchen params on scene they only called us because and I'm quoting here if he dies before the 15th they will want his check back police we're called and charges were filed he went to the nursing home received real care and actually lived another couple years how many phone calls did you get per day eight some days it feels like the phone never stops ringing other days it's so quiet you can just feel that something bad is going to happen and you just wait for it to break loose of course when I worked in the city it was busier than the rural departments some days you have people calling 9-1-1 for stupid things you shouldn't call the police for anyway and sure not 9-1-1 other days i've ran completely out of ambulances firemen and police offices and requesting assistance for other agencies did you ever get any calls where you just wanted to call them a donk head and stop wasting your time more than I can count people will call because their neighbor has a diesel truck or Harley motorcycle and started it up to go to work at 6:00 a.m. or because there is a man walking down the street hasn't done anything hasn't been on anyone's property just walking call from a trucker who hit the Construction orange barrels because no one would then merge insisted we send someone to hunt down the truck and give them a ticket was not happy when I informed him that if we came out he would get the ticket he had five miles that knew he had to merge and there was no law that said anyone had to let him in people call 911 the fireworks will start if the schools are open did you hear about the dispatcher in Fort Smith Arkansas speaking to the woman who had driven into floodwaters and died the police chief said that she didn't necessarily break any code of conduct do you agree with that or should this woman be fired I actually grew up right across the state line from where that happened and had a friend that used to live in that apartment complex while technically no she didn't break any policies or codes of conduct she did send help but because the car had been moved by the floodwaters they had helped locating her dispatch has no control over how long the officers firemen take to respond he was rude and hateful we sometimes have to get Stern with callers to get them to listen and follow instructions but she was above and would have been reprimanded if I were her supervisor however this dispatcher had already put in her two-week notice so I just think she didn't want to do the job anymore did you ever get a call where you knew you couldn't help them there have actually been a lot of them where I was sure that there was nothing we could do but you send everyone out and hope you are wrong there are so many times when someone is calling for a relative and over the phone you can hear agonal breathing aka death rattle the family will insist that they are breathing or just snoring trying to convince them that we need to get CPR started is hard the calls where a young mother is calling because she woke up and her baby is dead Sid's I assume and you can't come here down enough to even try CPR the suicidal callers where they basically tell you that they are gonna do it and don't want family to find them sometimes they do it with you on the phone sometimes after they hang up totally helpless feeling I've been a firefighter for a few years already but I've just become a volunteer dispatcher for my fire department so I can dispatch when I'm not on shift at the station my FD have 22 stations around the city and we handle around 9,000 fire calls per year I've noticed that the fact that I'm a firefighter sometimes really helps the firefighters on duty they recognized my voice in the know I will be giving them information they really need since I work in the streets with em but in the dispatcher world I'm new do you have any tips for a new dispatcher never ever stop learning this is an ever-evolving job take advantage of others experience remember when things go sideways tempers will flare things will be said try not to take it personal if your department will send you take any training you can how much would you say that the calls you receive have changed over 30 years in what ways have they changed people used to call 911 cease I will get so many actual emergency calls on my seven digit number and all I could figure was it was denial that no it's not bad enough to need 9-1-1 but lord inve nowadays they call to ask if the school is closed when the fireworks start because the neighbor looked at them it's just crazy and they get hateful and offended when you direct them to call a non-emergency line what do you and your co-workers think of the TV show 9-1-1 I hate it and don't know anyone that does watch it the dispatcher is a very small part of it most of it is about the officers firemen firstly thank you and all the 9-1-1 dispatchers and many apologies for but darling 9-1-1 on my cell phones i'm sure that's probably the most annoying calls you get when you could be saving people's lives and all you hear is some silence or distance talking there are a few times my mother had to call 9-1-1 due to my father's health and at times i have tried to call her in california from texas for help and constantly am told i need to dial local 911 dispatch to California 9-1-1 I usually get super frustrated when it tells me I have to call 9-1-1 and I explain I'm in Texas and I need the ambulance in California especially since I'm already panicking and needed ambulance fifteen minutes ago won't go too much into details but my mother cannot speak English well in any case when you get calls from persons who do not speak English at all or well enough how do you deal with it it's hard I'm sure to get the right translator as well to most Japanese and Korean may sound the same or Portuguese and Spanish et Cie and without accurate translations it could be life or death I'm sure again thank you to all the dispatchers Em's and firemen for saving lives and times when we're in panic I've never worked that any kind of translator service so I learned that most people no matter what no their address in English if I can get that I can send an officer to find out what I need if it's a fire I'm usually going to get calls from more than one person and one of them should speak English I will tell you that if you ever need to call for an ambulance in another state find out their direct line and call them direct and just give them the information they ask for then you don't have to worry about being transferred will you tell us what it was like to be a dispatcher during the Oklahoma City bombing do you ever have someone not want help from you because of your gender that one has happened to people I know a few times I have them always want to talk to an officer because they assume I can't help them but never because I'm female what was your scariest call the worst one for me was a domestic violence victim she had been beat up by her husband and had locked herself in the bathroom you could hear him beating on the door calling her name's telling her that this was gonna cost her big time why did she make him mad why did she make him do this she said he was going to kill her she had a cell phone that didn't have service and only called 9-1-1 she was never able to tell me where she lived and the door broke open and the phone went dead at the time we only got the nearest cell tower had officer drive the area with their windows down to listen to see if they could hear any yelling but we never found her don't know if he killed her and hid the body if he didn't and she's okay just don't know have you ever had a shitty co-worker who you thought might be detrimental to the mission of the emergency services how does the rest of a 9-1-1 phone bank deal with such a person unfortunately I've told more than one person that they maybe they should consider a different career choice unfortunately we have to wait till we get the proper documentation on their mistakes to be able to fire them throw you made it to the end you're ducking mad lad I'll cut you a deal smash like and subscribe for more curated content might it's free and that's a great price

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Id: IUgHgZG47gI

Length: 19min 5sec (1145 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 22 2019