911 dispatchers: the voice on the other end

MEMPHIS, TN — Memphis Police 9-1-1 dispatchers take between 10,000 and 12,000 calls per year. It’s a lot of pressure. But these professionals know a life could be on the line each time they answer the phone.

“Unfortunately it may be the last time anybody is talking to the person we’re talking to, depending on the call.”

Supervisor Michael Spencer says you don’t always have time to take it all in before the next line rings.

He says some calls, no matter how experienced you are, just stay with you.

“I’ve talked to kids who have barricaded themselves in a bathroom because there’s a prowler.”

From burglaries to domestic abuse, Spencer says calls coming from kids are sometimes the toughest.

“I’ve talked to several kids. It’s sad to hear what they’re going through and what they’re witnessing and seeing.”

Then there are the calls when a child is hurt. Deborah Golden a supervisor in Southaven says those are hard to get through because you can hear the desperation in the parent’s voice.

“We’ve taken several calls where children have drowned and parents call and they’re distressed. You’ve got a 5 year-old who’s not breathing and because we can’t see it, we picture it in our heads. We can still visualize what they’re doing and what the child looks like right and what the parent is having to do. You hear screaming in the background. It’s very stressful. Very stressful.”

Sheer fear is what Memphis supervisor Marvin Pender says caused him to carry this next call in the back of his mind for years. He took the call during an overnight shift.

“I spoke with a young man who had been shot. He didn’t know where he was. But two guys tried to rob him and he was hiding behind his house. He was laying there shot. He’s scared. He’s whispering because he doesn’t want the guys to hear him and you’re trying to assure him help is on the way.”

There’s also the calls when the dispatchers wish they could respond themselves.

“I took a call from an elderly female who dialed 911 because she thought somebody was breaking into her home and she was very, very upset. While I was on the phone with her you could hear the glass breaking in the background. Someone was actually coming into her home. I was thinking I wish I could get in the car, I wish I could be there.”

To cope, Golden’s managed to put the calls she can’t forget in a proverbial box. A mechanism she uses to keep going.

“I took a call from a man who had shot himself. He was in a cemetery and had shot himself and called because he had second thoughts about it and he wanted help. I stayed on the phone with him until police and paramedics arrived. I remember driving home thinking what would make him do that? What was so bad in his life that he felt the need to do that? I think I cried that night.

With such high stress and high standards, winding down from a life and death job isn’t so easy. Dispatchers say you find what works for you, and make it back to work everyday.

“I do a lot of sports. That helps me relieve the stress. You have to have an outlet when you come home,” Pender said.

“Just with anything in life having hobbies and outlets, trying to make your life the best it can be knowing that in perspective, a lot of people had a worse day than the worst day I’ve ever had,” is what Spencer says gets him through.

The estimated burnout rate for a 9-1-1 dispatcher is two years. It’s easy to see why. As a dispatcher you never know what call will be next and oftentimes it’s a thankless job.

“We’re just kind of silent heroes I guess in the background. We just keep on doing it,” Spencer said.

Read the story here.

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