I spent a day with 911 EMERGENCY DISPATCHERS

nine-one-one universal emergency number for everyone in the united states and numerous other regions of the world in 1967 9/11 the national emergency number for the u.s. allowing anyone to dial the numbers 9-1-1 from any telephone to link the color with an emergency dispatch office who can send first responders to the callers location in emergency but what about these dispatchers who speak directly to these panic callers in life-or-death situations every day my name is anthony padilla and today i'm gonna be sitting down with 911 dispatchers to learn the truth behind this stressful and potentially traumatizing career is the work of a 911 dispatcher truly fulfilling or does the constant pain and uncertainty of this job leave these dispatchers feeling like mere shells of themselves to psychologically traumatized to eat sleep or function in their normal lives [Music] hi Kristen hey Melissa thank you so much for coming out teach me about the wondrous world of 911 see dispatchers the way you're saying that with a lot of gravitas so what do you consider yourself 911 operator emergency dispatcher BAM nine one one dispatcher just police dispatcher police dispatcher I only do the police side I don't do the fire side how long have you been working as a dispatcher 20 years 17 years that's older than a couple people watching this what does being a dispatcher entail we answer business Lyons emergency lines or listening to the radio which is all the officers talking go through Google Maps inputting all the information into the call and typing while we're talking and listening I know what that there's like ten screens in front of you I have six seven eight eight screens I can barely focus on just watching Netflix yeah alone at the launch screen yeah it's a lot do you ever find it difficult to separate your emotions that you experience at work from you when you go home it was I think pretty rough for a few years because I felt like I didn't know how to separate it and I didn't know what to do for myself about four years ago I really started to dig deep and do work on myself and I was like I'm started listening to people on YouTube talking and like motivational speeches and see YouTube does do a good thing every once in a while amazing things yeah what's the training process like to become a dispatcher we train on phones first and then we train on radio and that takes anywhere from six months to a year and then we're on probation for another year after that yeah so how high is that turnover rate I would say maybe like 80% don't make it how often do you receive pink calls all the time how many times a day or how many times an hour what oh I might get but dials I get an Apple watch dials like God people call all day all day before we learn more about the wondrous world of 911 dispatchers I can just wanted to thank you for showing such immense support for this series every time you watch one of my videos you're essentially casting a vote for more videos in this series and more topics like this to be discussed I think these messages and the people affected by these topics are super important so thank you for continuing to subscribe and turn on all notifications so you always see all the videos I make regardless of YouTube's algorithm besides they want a black list that topic or not we can decide what it is that we want to see that's all I wanted to say now back to learning about the wondrous world of 911 what's the most bizarre phone call you've ever seen a family member found one of their male family members having with a chihuahua I [Music] [Laughter] need some help in here please oh my god yeah yeah you get some bizarre how often do you receive an emotionally draining phone call all the time every day every day yeah when it's the real serious emotional calls like you suicidal ones or child death ones though sit with you for a while a long while and some of them you can never forget the screams that you hear you cannot forget and I didn't think about the fact that you you hear things happen not just people talking about it but you hear things happen if you were to watch a horror film and you closed your eyes and pretend you're on the phone talking to whoever's the victim and that personal scene and that's what it's like I think I would have difficulty falling asleep at night yeah I mean the first year or two that's all I would dream about was the calls that I had gotten but as time goes on you kind of like put it behind you and just know you did what you could do during that time yeah that's all you can do do you think it should be mandatory for 911 dispatchers to take some kind of therapy or have some kind of outlet for all the stresses that they endure well on the clock one of the things that we've done at our department is we created a quiet room so it's a separate room away from our break room and the rest of the department it's just a tiny it's maybe like this big it has a couch in there a peaceful place yes smells relaxing yes a blankie everything right like a retreat when you're it is look because it's a lot that's happening and sometimes you're not ready to deal with anybody else because a lot just happens they by law have to offer us a private therapist that we can volunteer to go to yeah but as of right now it's kind of funny you say that because myself and another dispatcher are really trying to get that implemented into our dispatch policy that we have to be sent after something like this you want to be mandatory rather than and the police law enforcement culture you're kind of looked down upon if you ask for help if something bothers you there's a negative stigma yeah wanting help yeah because we're supposed to be the the the the helpers we're supposed to know how to handle everything but you're human so yes exactly are there any common mistakes people make when calling 911 stem from getting help as quickly as possible so when you call 9-1-1 please please please tell us where you're at tell us your address okay yeah the world tell us where you're at please they watch CSI or all these other crazy shows right and they're like you know where I'm at and I'm like no I takes a while for me to figure out how to figure out where you're at it's not super accurate it's a computer system it's triangulation between three different satellites right and like that could be anywhere within us that could be anywhere within a range of 10 buildings and you don't know how many levels are out of this building you don't know how many different units there are you don't know which area the closet you don't know where that I'm just making stuff up but is it right pretty okay how do you feel about the way 911 dispatchers are portrayed and you know TV or movies so not accurate not accurate what's the what's the biggest I haven't been able to get through like one full episode of is it called dad no yeah and she's like always getting up and going to the scene and do and like no we do not get it look like dispatchers go to this yeah and they go and help out and like Christina Lynch wants to know which call you been on that you've been the most proud of we did track down somebody who needed a medical emergency and we ended up finding him because he didn't know where he was at so he ended up being saved and then the other ones I think are the ones who are seriously suicidal that we kind of talked them out of until we get the officers there to give them the help that they need Natalie wants to know if the trick of calling in and ordering pizza really works does it work yeah we don't have a code in our dispatch center for pizza so so if I mean if there is a reason why you can't talk because I have had some calls like that and they've pretended to be like asking for an electrician or whatever it is you guess it's just over time you kind of just picking up on little things you could be you're able to read people's voices a night answer 61 wants to know how you get through those difficult calls and what keeps you positive something that we learned in one of our training classes was just breathe because when you're when you're taking these calls you know your adrenaline is up here and you almost forget to breathe yeah yeah it's almost like a natural human response to get quiet lower your breath so you can focus on your surroundings and normal your you yeah do you feel dispatchers get the recognition they deserve no what do you know it would be nice to be considered first responders you only do that right now in Texas and they're trying to pass a bill for it to be in California as well so we'll see if it happens so what does that mean if you were considered a first responder dispatcher well one it would give us a little bit more recognition but then we'd also be able to be supported more like you said for like therapy stuff and our benefits would be a little bit better and everything too because right now we're considered like basically secretaries Oh you're treated the same way as anyone else I am good yeah what would you say to someone who's watching who wants to become a 911 dispatcher but it's maybe nervous about the stress and anxiety that comes with taking such a high-stakes job you'll know when you're there if that's for you and you can always do a sit along you can always ask call a police department and ask and see if you can come in and do a sit along during the busy hours specifically because that will really give you a taste of what the job entails what do you think the biggest misconceptions surrounding dispatchers is probably that we're cold and we don't care mm-hmm and it's because when we're on the phone like I said earlier like I want everything like this right but look so that's part of the job right as we're asking everything we're immediately giving out that information to the officers so it's like telephone if you want me to give it out you need to give it to me right away you need to be as short and to the point without emotion as you can in order to get them help exactly as they can yeah phonecall time I would like to see how you you sound when you talk to people wait that call are you ready so I am going you give me a common scenario that people call with somebody's breaking into their car or their five-year-old won't go to school [Laughter] all right and what's the number for 911 oh I've had that too okay I have my child next to me they will not they will not get in the car they so many things that I could try digits yes yes I can what address do need police at sir it's it's 7 to 2 so my 77 22 industry number 72 to Marshall way okay is this a house apartment it is it is an apartment so my starters the B apartment permit vehicle B as in boy he's a big big boy big boy big boy my big boy he is not getting he's five years old he will not go to school it's the first day of kindergarten and I'm very nervous that if he doesn't go to his friend ascribes yes take a deep breath for me you're the parent yes yes okay this is your five year old son yes my five year old son will not get in the car to go to the police to take your son to the car I don't know what to do it's a it's a governmental requirement for a child to be in in school and I'm afraid that I am going to be taken away from my child if they don't go to school all right what's his name his name isn't Marshall okay we'll head an officer over there as soon as we can to escort Marshall to school for you okay okay all right okay thank you calm down a little Pierce as we can thank you all right buh-bye wow you did cut through the fat straight to the bone okay I actually have a parting gift we wear shirts which you can get at the dildo shop calm before you I'll give this to you full I will cherish it always 9:01 yes you must absolutely subscribe to Anthony Padilla thank you for calling are you got five seconds a shout-out or promote anything you want directly in the camera go you guys can follow me on dispatch or Kristen on Instagram or the podcast is the name of one strong podcast so you can go find me on instagram at the mommy mentor and that's where I help women all over the world thank you so much bully 110 percent understand the wondrous world of being a 911 emergency dispatcher after spending the day with these 911 dispatchers I've come to understand just how much patience and split-second reflexes are required for this job and despite receiving little to no recognition for their hard work and saving people's lives many of these dispatchers provide a sense of safety in their communities akin to a real-life superhero see you later bye guys press alike like all the things you need to know about dialing 911 that is huge that's the first step everybody has an emergency hmm I had an emergency right now in my pants I don't want to know I'm not on duty I can't help you now you go and you have a throw in duty - okay

Channel: AnthonyPadilla

Views: 2,292,492

Rating: 4.9844799 out of 5

Keywords: anthony padilla, padilla, anthony, smosh anthony, anthony padilla smosh, i spent a day with, interview, 911, emergency, 911 dispatcher, 911 operator, first responder, 911 calls, 911 calls funny

Id: go5GWjmyI3M

Length: 14min 37sec (877 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 27 2020