Opinion : Reading my mind: Dispatchers

This week is National Dispatcher Week. The dispatcher is the voice on the other end of a 911 call. The calm, cool and collected voice that sends help. Some dispatchers might joke that they are the ONLY ones that get to tell the cops where to go and not get arrested for it. 

The people on the receiving end of the 911 calls have a completely different set of worries when they are at work. They worry about the people who call them. How can they help? What's the emergency? Most importantly, where the person is calling from. 

They hear your call on the worst day of your life and try to make it a tiny bit better with the heroes that they send to help. Sometimes they get those calls where nothing can be done. Sometimes they hear people take their last breath and know in their gut that there is nothing more that can be done in time. They send help in the middle of blizzards directing officers and emergency personnel out to rescue those of us that should have stayed home. 

Sometimes they take a call from a relative, knowing that they are helping one of their own. They stay calm, not letting the loved one on the other end know who it is. They help the relative through the crisis and answer the next call.

Their job becomes real as they hear that an officer in another town has been shot. It's late at night, and they are on duty but helpless to do anything. They watch their monitor as officers from across the area head to the location to search for the shooter. All they can do is watch and pray. 

Dispatchers are the ones that watch their monitors again as a funeral is held for a fallen officer in a neighboring town. All of the dots on the screen represent a patrol car that is headed to the funeral. Lots and lots of dots are all heading to pay their respects in neighboring Independence this year.

Following these events, a call comes in for assistance. The officer on duty can't be reached. The dispatchers go into a full-blown panic mode thinking the worst has happened to one of their own. Just seconds from calling the Iowa State Patrol to check on their officer, the officer comes back online and doesn't have a clue why the dispatcher is panicking. 

Dispatchers go through all kinds of emotions in this job. When it comes to the pay scale, they are near the bottom, yet they aren't heard. They are responsible for holding your lives in their hands and sometimes those of our officers. I hear over and over that it's a struggle to fill these positions. 

It's a thankless job, If you do your job right, you're invisible. If you do your job right, you know all of the information that you can know and you're ready to handle any kind of emergency. If you do your job right you are sometimes able to help officers in the field locate a bad guy. You take care of the paperwork that needs to be entered into the system. You handle all of the emotions of callers and officers and somehow you don't fall apart, at least not at work. 

These men and women take your calls, they quickly direct resources in your direction. They understand your anger and fear and know that it's the situation talking, not necessarily the callers. They are probably one of the most unsung heroes in the community. You never see their faces, and wouldn't recognize them on the street. 

So to all of you at the end of the 911 calls, thank you so much for your hard work. Thank you for having all of our backs. Thanks for serving our community!