Emergency Communications Dispatchers Thank You!

We at Red Lights For Firefighters would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the following professions: Auxiliaries, Fire Police, and Emergency Communications Dispatchers. These are all vital and essential services provided on a daily basis that are rarely recognized or mentioned, which we here at Red Lights For Firefighters have not touched upon much. So today we will. As a result, we have created a three-part appreciation segment that includes each one of the mentioned essential services that deserve full recognition.

In the ending segment of our three-part article series, we will discuss the employees and Emergency Communications Dispatch Centers. Whether it be our local Jefferson County Emergency Communications Dispatchers that consist of Jefferson County Fire and Ambulance, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, and New York State Police, or Watertown City Fire, Watertown City Police Department, and our local private ambulance service Guilfoyle Ambulance, who has their own Emergency Communications Dispatchers, there are several Emergency Communications Centers across New York State, the United States, and the world that employ dispatchers that handle Fire, EMS, Police, and information services.

In some of the larger cities like NYC, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Miami, Chicago, and Tokyo, and large counties like Los Angeles County and Miami-Dade County, these Emergency Communications Dispatch Centers are set up with multiple sections to handle the necessary workload of incoming and outgoing communications. Many of these centers are so large that you could fit the Jefferson County Emergency Communications Dispatch Center within their current floor plan several times over.

These elite groups of people operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, working holidays, nights, weekends, and during those difficult times when the weather doesn’t wish to cooperate. These men and women are the first line of communication with the caller and are the direct link between the caller and those members of emergency services that are in the field actively working a scene. It often goes unnoticed that the men and women of Emergency Communications Dispatch Centers face a great deal of stress and carry the challenge of being able to remain calm on the phone, no matter the nature of the call.

Emergency Communications Dispatch Centers across the country and the world receive a wide variety of alarms that range from residential/commercial structure fires, and motor vehicle accidents/M.V.A. that may have entrapment. They also deal with medical calls, which can include heart attacks, strokes, difficulty breathing, choking, drownings, burns, lacerations, stabbings, gunshots, and many other types of calls, in which emergency personnel may be needed.

It is difficult to prepare for these calls, as when you answer a phone call, you do not know what you may be faced with. At times these calls may involve children, which often weigh heavily on the dispatchers’ minds and hearts. It’s important for the Emergency Communications Dispatch Centers to have services available for the dispatchers and responders to discuss their feelings and/or the calls.

Several Emergency Communications Dispatchers, whether large or small, are responsible for managing a wide scope of dispatching Fire, EMS, and Police, which can consist of multiple agencies at the same time. These dispatchers need to be able to multitask without missing a beat.

We ask one question. How do those in the Emergency Communications Field do it with the highly stressful and, at times, emotional environment on a daily basis? Dispatchers are a special breed. These are amazing people who have a very demanding and high-stress profession. We know that, at times, they experience bad days and may seem to be irritated. We ask you; do you have the patience and mental strength to do their job, or even have a small understanding of what it's like to deal with the calls they answer / dispatch? We hope this article can give you a little insight into that, and request that you keep these things in mind if you ever have to utilize dispatcher services for any reason.

We leave you with this thought, the next time you are listening to the radio or scanner, remember the call takers and dispatchers are providing the emergency responders with all the information needed to help make someone’s worst day better. In closing, we leave you with a reminder of an unfortunate incident that greatly affected those employees of the Jefferson County Emergency Communications Dispatch Center in July of 2017 that involved the death of NYS Trooper Joel Davis. As a result of several employees of the emergency services working closely with and/or knowing Trooper Davis, when it was noted the Trooper was wounded, and it was not immediately known the outcome of his injuries, we know that must have taken an emotional toll on them, and probably still does each time they have a call for a domestic incident. Through this tragedy, they continued to do their jobs in the absolute most effective way possible during the incident and continue to do so with every call they handle to this day. Thank you, Dispatchers, and other Emergency Communications personnel, and to all of our first responders everywhere, for the strength you carry every day to make sure that our emergencies are handled in the best, most efficient way possible. Our dispatchers, along with our first responders, are true hometown heroes, in every hometown. Words can never express how important your job is and how hard it must be at times. On behalf of Red Lights For Firefighters, we want to send a SHOUT OUT to those in Emergency Dispatch Communications for the excellent job you do on a daily basis.

We hope you have enjoyed our three-part segment on some of the members of the first responders who, all too often, go unnoticed. We welcome any feedback you may have on these articles, as well as suggestions for any other articles you would like to see us write at info@redlightsforfirefighters.com. Info

We wanted to take the time to acknowledge some people who assisted us in our recent stories by reviewing, critiquing, and proofreading the stories. They helped give us some more insight into the fields and added in a few things we missed. We appreciate their time assisting us with these stories. Jon Barrett, Shannon Doney, Josh Baker, & Darren Shelley. Anyone else we missed we are sorry and feel free to let us know and we will add you in.

If you would like to see the other two articles in out three-part series, please go to the following links:
For Auxiliaries: Auxiliaries Thank You!
For Fire Police: Fire Police Thank You!

Thank you all for everything you do.

Red Lights For Firefighters LLC