The Walker Speaks Pt. 2 - Dispatching

There are many things that go on inside of a police station that as a dispatcher, I am not allowed to talk about. I even signed some fancy papers so that I can be in trouble if I ever do. There are a few things I can talk about though. Things like how weird the station feels when it's empty. The shot of energy that runs into a body during a call. There is even the whole bit about working with the officers and the ones that become your favorites, and the ones that just sorta tick you off when you are around.

I work in two different dispatch offices. At college, I press one button. I fill out a small piece of paper, I maybe look up a name or two in a database to get someone to move their car. While it doesn't seem like there is a lot on the line working at a college office, you'd be surprised. The officers there are real cops. They are trained, they carry weapons, and they can be in harms way. I know that a lot of people look at campus safety like rent a cops, but they are a hell of a lot more than that. They face threats too. As a dispatcher, you have to be on your toes to deal with it. I remember one night I was sitting there working on a draft of my book and this booming voice comes over the radio 10-80, 10-80.

Well, in the year or so I had been working at that point, I had never had a 10-80 so I didn't have a clue what the hell was going on. It was a chase. It was the first big call I had ever worked on and I spazzed. I mean, papers flying off the desk to find a clear bit of space to write down everything that was going on. The local PD was calling over the radio, on the phone, I was keeping track of times, places, names, and clinging to my calm. That's the first thing they tell you about dispatching. Remain calm. HA!

When all was said and done, I had a list of all the information printed on a sheet of paper that went along with the call card. I impressed the officers because I didn't know what the hell they would need from the  incident, sooo...I sorta just gave them everything.

After I graduated college (the first time), I managed with some help to get a job dispatching in New York. They gave me the typical stare down. They tell you lives are on the line, that you are responsible for the safety of the officers. That you have to be steady, ready to handle anything thrown at you. If you can't make it, get out. Well, somehow I managed to get through training, to get my first shift on my own.

My first shifts at campus safety were a set of nervous days when you wondered how things work and if you'll make a mistake and call officer a by officer b's name. My first shifts at a fully functioning police station? Terrifying. They aren't lying when they say there are lives on the line. Things really do come flying at you quick and in rapid succession. You can have the phone ringing, the radio lines for your officers, EMTs and Fire Department all going off at the same time, AND someone standing at the window demanding your attention. To say that it's ridiculous at times is the least that I can say. I will openly sit here and curse out the radio, the ringing phones and answer in the same calm manner I was trained in. I'm pretty sure I've been caught cussing out the multitudes before answering them, or securing locations, or whatever. It helps me. I'll be pretty angry by the time a large call is over, but as I sit and write out the report, I start feeling better that there hasn't been anything else I could have done. I'm not usually mad about a billion people trying to get my attention at once, but more like that I feel that I'll miss something important if I don't hear what is said.

So far, so good. KNOCK ON WOOD.

What is nice about working at this station is that everything transmitted over the air via phone or radio gets recorded. If I miss something, I can look it up and see what it was. I've also learned that I hate the sound of my voice over the radio.

There are perks to this job. Sure, there are the ones everyone thinks about. Oh, you can get out of speeding tickets and other minor bits of trouble, the guys have your back and you work a pretty cushy job when the radio's not screaming (I mean seriously, sometimes I feel like I get paid to sit here and watch tv and facebook). The pay is also pretty damn good.

But the perks I'm talking about aren't the normal ones. I work for a police station in a town that has a village with a seperate police department inside of it. The inner village is home to some of the overly weathy. Even Whoopi Goldberg has a house in there. The houses are huge, sprawling things that seem way to close to their neighbors for what they probably pay. The entire development isn't like that, but it is a private gated area. As a dispatcher, I need to know the roads, know where they meet up or end. I also need to know the gated community, though not as well. So as part of my training, I got to go with an officer up for a ride around the area and see what there is to see. And man, some of those places? Wow.

There are things like nicknames that come into play. When I work at campus safety, I'm Troxell or Trox. When I started there, three Sara(h)s. So Trox became my name. In high school, I hated Troxell. It made me feel like people didn't want to spend the time figuring out which Troxell I was. In college, it made me stand apart. Then there are the names I got working for Tuxedo.

My favorite is probably Roxe, from my last name tROXEll. Then there's pirate girl because I have a bumper sticker that says trust me, I'm a pirate. What's funny is that the officer that gave me this name will every once and a while ARRR over the radio. I'll jokingly call him Capt. sometimes because of it. Our LT gave me a theme song to "Get This Party Started" by Pink. It's a great place to work. Then naturally, you get the officers.

At campus safety, you get a pretty matched set. Some are more friendly, more serious, quieter or louder dependingly. But they are all really good officers trying to get stuff done. There's one officer that used to ask me every time I worked with him how to do something with his email. He sends PARAGRAPHS in text messages now. Then there are officers who won't really talk much unless you talk to them and then it's getting them to stop that's the problem. There are officers who "wanna fight" but you always win. They'll threaten to baton you, handcuff you, or demand you stop answering calls so they can stay warm in the office. All together, a great bunch of officers.

At Tuxedo, the mixing of officers is just that. A mix. You've got the grown up frat boy, the prankster, the serious ones, the good looking ones, the funny and the talkative, the younger and older. There is politics, drama, stress. There are stories told that will have tears in your eyes from laughing and then there are situations that have you cringing in disbelief. There are dads, boyfriends, children, houses to buy, new cars, divorces, and car accidents. There are cookies,

There are pros and cons to each job. One job is more laid back, more stress-free. One job requires more concentration and training and you really have to work to be good. There are people that make each job a pleasure. There sure as hell people that piss me off. There are situations I wish I wasn't involved in, things I wish I hadn't heard or seen. There are things I'm happy to have helped, things I know I've done right, or did correctly that have helped people. I wish that I could always be certain I'm helping people. I am quick and good at what I do. I make mistakes, but I aim to keep them far and few between.

One of the things I was told when I first started dispatching for Tuxedo was that the glass was bulletproof...but if a gun was ever pulled from the other side of the glass, duck under the desk, that was sure to stop a bullet.

6 inches of steel.

Interesting.