Forgotten dispatchers snap to attention with every call

LEELANAU, MI — Jan McCurties and Jessica Plamandon are helping hands people, but you only get to hear their voices.

They are multi-taskers who can react quickly in an emergency situation, then go minutes or hours without even a phone call.

McCurties and Plamondon are two of the 10 county dispatchers, who provide 24-7 service 365 days a year.

“Every day is different,” Plamondon said. “You never know what’s going to happen.

“You have to be able to do more than one thing at a time. It is stressful, but every job can be. Sometimes it’s a challenge. But I love it because I’m able to help so many people in the community.”

McCurties and Plamondon, the most veteran of county dispatchers, both started out working for the Sheriff’s Department when it was in Leland. They have seen major technology changes, going from a typewritten or handwritten complaint to a modernized computer and mapping system.

“You have to be computer savvy,” Plamondon said.

The county has three dispatch stations; two are always manned. Each dispatcher has a desktop with four different computers. The Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) tracks personnel, equipment, reports, addresses, phone information, mapping and more.

McCurties, who also worked for a decade dispatching in Detroit, remembers when cell phone calls were non-existent.

“The technology has changed and continues to evolve,” she said. “We didn’t have CAD.”

In 2010, the dispatchers handled 6,883 9-1-1 calls and 39,613 non-emergency calls that resulted in over 12,000 incidents requiring that first responders be sent out. The numbers for 2011 are not yet available.

While only 15 percent of the calls received are 9-1-1 dialed, another 5,000 calls they take end up needing emergency personnel. They also received 137 9-1-1 hangups.

Dispatchers placed in excess of 100,000 additional outgoing calls to other agencies, departments or citizens.

“I think it’s a comfort to the caller when you get a real person,” McCurties said. “Especially when it’s your baby running a 106 temp or its your husband having a heart attack, or your kid that just fell off the boat in the middle of the lake.

“You’ve got two well-trained dispatchers to handle what pops up.”

The dispatchers have to sort through a lot of dribble at times. In 2010, they received 232 calls just for information. It’s their job to figure out if a real emergency is at hand.

“We encourage you to call 911 if you want a policeman, fire or ambulance person at your house,” Tom Skowronski, the county’s emergency services director. “We’ll sort it out.

“Don’t sit there and think in your mind is it an emergency? Should I dial 9-1-1”

“You learn to prioritize,” Plamondon said. “Sometimes you’ll get a 9-1-1 and a general call and they both want something but you have to say do you have an emergency.

“You learn to pick up on little hidden clues.”

The days shifts —7 a.m. to 3 p.m. — usually handle more administrative calls like acquiring police reports. Afternoon shifts — 3-11 p.m. — usually get a lot more in-progress calls such as family disputes and traffic stops.

Sometimes a day at work is hard to forget.

“It’s really hard sometimes to leave work at work as it is to leave home at home,” Plamondon said. “But you find a way to cope with it and move on.

“But there are some calls that will stick with you forever.”

One of those calls came on March 30, 2006, when the Orchard Creek Health Care facility caught fire.

“It was probably the most stressful day of work because you had to find placements for the patients that they had and there was a lot going on,” Plamondon recalled.

Calls that have anything to do with kids also stick with Plamondon, who has a daughter.

“Those calls get you right in the heart strings, especially for a parent,” she said.

Handling deaths in families is a difficult call for McCurties.

“Sometimes the person is calling on behalf of spouse drowning or a husband who died of cancer,” McCurties said. “People are just so emotionally charged.

“You have to learn to keep your own equilibrium and it’s hard because you know within seconds when you have a difficult call and there’s a temptation to raise up your adrenalin, too.”

Plamondon said her biggest professional reward came in November when an Interlochen hunter publicly thanked her for help in rescue efforts after he fell from a tree stand in the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore.

“He wrote a letter to the editor … that was huge,” she said. “Usually people thank the fire or the police departments.

“They never usually thank the person who they actually talk to and got everybody there. It’s one of the highlights.”

“We don’t get a lot of thanks, but the rewarding thing is knowing that you are able to meet the needs that people have when they are calling,” McCurties said.

Dispatchers, who are paid $16.21 per hour to start and top out at $21, go through 16 weeks of intensive training.

They don’t touch the radio or telephone for the first four to five weeks. They do not answer 9-1-1 calls until their communication training officer clears them.

Dispatchers report to Skowronski, a former Sheriff’s deputy and undersheriff. He has been a hands-off supervisor since the law enforcement center opened Nov. 11, 2004.

“They have policy and procedures in place to walk them through 99 percent of the stuff,” Skowronski said.

Leelanau’s dispatchers were one of the first to use emergency medical dispatch services program.

“A lot of the process is out of dispatcher’s hands,” Skowronski said. “When you call in, the dispatchers first responses is Leelanau 9-1-1, what is the address of you emergency.

“We need to get the address first and what number you are calling from. A lot of times it’s already on the screen. It’s just a matter of confirmation.”

The protocol guides dispatchers through a series of yes or no or short single answer questions.

“After a couple of questions, dispatchers will have enough information at this point to say, ‘Stay on the line. I’m going to going to dispatch some help to you,” he said. “It’s important that they stay on the line.”

With the push of a button, the appropriate first responder is contacted.

“The idea is to not send unnecessary resources to a call,” he said.

The county also dispatches for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore Service and Michigan State Police.

Read the story here.

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