First Line Of Response — Q&A with Northumberland Sheriff’s Office, VA
Whenever we are faced with an emergency, we can always count on the police, firefighters, or EMS to respond to the call. We count on those men and women to save the day. But do we ever stop and think about the people who get them there? The people who are the first to respond and assess the emergency? Those who stay on the line and wait till safety has arrived? The dispatcher. Dispatching is arguably one of the most important factors in the line of defense.
We sat down with Major Beauchamp & Communications Supervisor Jennifer Packet from Northumberland Sheriff’s Office and asked a few questions:
DS: How does one prepare for a job as a dispatcher?
JP: You have to be mentally prepared to handle multiple tasks at any given time.
DS: Is that from experience?
JP: This job is not for everyone — You build that experience over time.
DS: What about personal 911?
JP: All personal affiliations need to be left at the front door when you walk into a shift, people call us in need so every person is treated the same.
DS: Walk us through a regular shift:
JP: When we get situated we are briefed on previous shift call.
DS: How does that help you?
JP: It helps on identifying on existing calls from a previous shift.
DS: Why is that important
JP: We have many instances where it’s a recurring event that transfers over to different shifts so having realtime Pass On info is crucial.
DS: What one rule to live by as a dispatcher?
JP: During a shift, team work is a must, which, I personally oversee. We have incidents where multiple dispatchers would be working a call and having that work ethic and team work and efficiently complete the task
DS: How might your calls vary and what are the general protocols?
Jp: General protocol is to get location of incident and type of incident to determine a response and type of unit/agencies need to be dispatched.
DS: What else do you do?
JP: Answer all emergency and non emergency calls. Dispatch for Law, Fire, and EMS for the county. Quick thinking and decision making is a must, general protocol is to get location of incident and type of incident to determine a response and type of unit/agencies need to be dispatched
DS: How do you feel about technology and the way it is improving public safety?
JP: I feel its improving officer and other responders safety by giving us real time information. The ability to communicate with ease with other team members which goes to my original point on teamwork
DS: What’s not working, and how can it be fixed?
JB: The current solution has its limitations however having the ability to have multi agency communication at your fingertips is critical because time is essence which could determine the outcome of a call.
As the first line of communication in an emergency, the job of a dispatcher is no easy feat, but technology has integrated ways help ease the process. Cloud computing for the public safety sector will help the transition into a more modern system and alleviate communication issues between agencies.
It is safe to say, a well equipped agency is at the forefront in taking proactive measures and saving even more lives each day.
