Nasty Dispatchers

[Joe159]

Our dispatchers are so hostile and nasty. Very rude and they always seem angry. Some officers have actually argued with them over the radio and the officer ends up getting in trouble.

I was just wondering if any other depts/officers have ever had this problem.

[jaybird]

Who hasn't had a dispatcher be snappy with them. Who hasn't been snappywith a dispatcher, either on purpose, or just out of stress.

I think that maybe it has to do with the fact that they don't know what we are doing and we don't understand what they are doing.

I know when I saw our communications room and the terminals that our dispatchers use, I was blown away with how much they have going on up there. THey stay pretty busy.

[IL Lawman]

...'til you've worked with some - notice that I said "some" - of my dispatchers.
Yes...they can be rude AND hostile...and ignorant. Remember though guys & gals, they have a HECK of a lot going on in the radio room & it all goes on at once!
We have 11 phone lines, 2 radio frequencies and a complaint window, all managed by ONE dispatcher.
EVERYTHING is computerized: alarm boards, dispatch center, etc. I know from first hand experience just HOW BUSY it can get...because it's happened to me on more than one occasion.
I always try to help out when I'm passing by the radio room, whether it's a person at the window or just a phone ringing.
They're ALWAYS under a lot of stress - the so-called "encounter stress": trying to do TOO much for TOO many people in TOO short a time period. That's why the career expectancy of a dispatcher is usually only 4 - 5 years before they get burned out.
Conversely, when we're on the street we only handle ONE call at a time. Unfortunately, they don't have that option.
Treat like gold boys & girls. For that is truly what they're worth. And the few who aren't...they just won't last.
A new Dispatcher supervisor....

[MrJim911]

The way to prevent this is to teach both sides professionalism. Arguing on the radio is not an option. There are people listening to what your both saying out in scannerland. Not to mention you don't want one of those tapes going to court because "things" were said to one another during a major incident. At my agency arguing never takes place on air because both parties will hear about it from their admin. If a dispatcher has a problem with a officer or vice versa than they can call up on the phone and "discuss" it amongst themselves. Busy isn't an excuse to blow your top. I know busy. We have 11 911 lines alone and this doesn't include 4 Alarm company lines, 3 police/fire transfer lines, 2 admin lines and about 9 Ring down or HOTLINES. Lets not forget the alarm board which holds about 300 police/fire alarms. (Fortunately we don't deal with the public at a window that is not/should not be a dispatchers job.) Handled by 2-3 dispatchers at night and 3-4 during days and eves. One of the dispatchers main skills is to remain calm no matter what. If you have dispatchers being rude and arguing on the radio bring it up at your next meeting with your chiefs or whom ever and have them bring it to the dispatch center director. And if for some reason your chief is in charge of diapatch then even more easy to handle. This should be a non-issue. Good luck.

[Lupey]

Fortunately all our dispatchers & officers get along well. So far (3 years) not many major riffs to report. Yes their have been disagreements but they are handled via the phone or after shift and it is more like a discussion than arguement. Yes their has been attitudes given out over the radio but that is to be expected as the stress of both sides of the radio is going to build up sooner or later. I don't think much can be done about that.

[KYEMT325]

Well, my com center has 1 com officer (dispatcher) who manages 16 phone lines (that's just administrative), four 911 lines, 2 Silent Knight Alarm terminals with fire and intrusion alarms for over 450 buildings, approximately 50 radio channels at various times (although usually only 4 or 5 are monitored at once typically, depending on what's going on), a walk-up window for complaints, taking money and releasing cars for a parking department when they go home at 4, another alarm panel with 300 more local buildings on it, searching warrants, monitoring teletypes on NCIC, NLETS, and LINK (Law Information Network of Kentucky), there's more but I won't even go there right now. Now, with all that going on for ONE person, you talk about stress levels!?! We have one dispatcher who hates her job, and wants nothing more in this world than to be a police officer. However, for now she is stuck, and that makes her very rude to other officers. Mind you, sometimes the officers deserve to have their rear-ends kicked...especially a new hotdog officer who gets bored in the field (BUT IT IS NEVER BORING IN COMMUNICATIONS), and decides he's going to make traffic stops constantly one right after the other and "keep the dispatcher busy". They think that just because they're bored, that we are too. That is not the case.

We are beginning a new program as part of our officers FTO program, in which each officer, while on FTO, is REQUIRED to spend at least 2 weeks in dispatch to get a feel for how busy we stay in there. And after the first few days of learning how to do things, we are going to throw them to the wolves and tell our dispatchers to let them answer all the phones (with us monitoring all emergency calls, of course) and see what it is we go through. We think that this will stop the problem of officers pushing the limit with our communications staff to the point that they hate each other. I'll post if it works or not in a few months after we've tried it for a while.

Further, rudeness to the public (no matter how ignorant they are) is NOT an option. We will discipline anyone who is rude on the phone, and our people understand that most people have never had any interaction with the police department before, therefore they can't be expected to know if their questions are "stupid" or not.

[WudUpA]

My experience with dispachers is that they are probobly some of the nicest ( a little overweight) women that you can meet OUTSIDE OF WORK. If there is a Christmas party... or New Years party..... get to know them.

BUT when they are at work...they can be like the DEVIL....

They snap orders...and if you just obey them....and give them a little time to cool down from thier addrenaline high.... you will see that they will call you aside and tell you thier sorry....and they will rub your neck....heheheh

Seriously though....they have a job that I could not imagine....They are either doing nothing... or all hell is broken loose..

The only way to feel what they are feeling when they have an emergency is to imagine you and 2 others wrestling an armed subject to the ground...and some civilian walks up and says "CAN I HELP?"... You might respond with "GET THE HELL AWAY NOW!!!"

Thats because that addrenaline doesnt let you think before you speak...thats what dispachers go through...

Get to know your dispatchers...they are your lifeline...

[MrJim911]

It's interesting to read about everyones personal experience on this. For example, with the exception of one woman all of the women I work with are thin and in really good shape (that's about 9 women). I'm 1 of 5 men working and that doesn't include the Director and Deputy Director who are men. It probably helps we get a dispatcher discount at the local Powerhouse Gym.

We don't snap orders because that's not our job. We just tell you where to go. (no pun intended) ;) Although we do "suggest" or "advise" certain things sometimes.

Personally I've never rubbed an officers neck, nor would I. I'd make myself throw up and I'd probably have a gun pointed at me in short order. :bang:

And I speak for myself and others at my agency but we never speak before we think because of adrenaline. I guess it all depends on where you work, aka: work environment, and the quality of training you receive.

[tcsd1236]

We went to a consolidated 911 center earlier this year. The center is not under LE control, but is housed with the Fire boys. There has definetely been a loss of faith in dispatchers since that happened, as some of the newer dispatchers for the police side of the house appear to be totally incompetent.

[MrJim911]

tcsd-When you say the newer dispatchers do you mean that when you consolidated you picked up dispatchers from the other agency? If so who is in charge of your PSAP now? The guys that were in charge of yours before the consolidation or the other PSAPs guys?

[tcsd1236]

The Fire and Sheriff's dispatchers consolidated at the beginning of 2000. The largest PD in the county was supposed to throw its dispatchers into the mix, but they withheld them until the current fiasco is resolved.

I am referring to what were previously only "fire" dispatchers who are now acting as "police" dispatchers. The consolidated dispatch center still has a division of labor, with the on-duty dispatchers being split between a police dispatcher, fire dispatcher and a "call taker" whose only role in life is to answer the phone. The police dispatcher cannot talk to fire personnel on their console, nor can the fire dispatcher talk to us on theirs. The move into a consolidated center created dispatcher slots because some of our dispatchers chose to take a job title change rather than move out of the SO into a dispatch center away from the department. The vacancies were filled by fire dispatchers when everyone melded downtown.

The problem with this is that fire dispatchers have no concept of what it takes to be a police dispatcher, and quite frankly they don't want to learn, in my opinion. Noone bothered to give them any instruction, either, after the consolidation. The police dispatcher runs their ass off dispatching for us, several small village PD's and interacting with the NYSP desk officer who acts as THEIR dispatcher. The fire dispatchers sit there, see that amount of work, and don't want anything to do with police dispatching, since they get at most 1/20th the anount of call volume per shift that the police dispatcher gets.

The dispatch center is under the control of a fire guy who is anti-LE. No support there for us.

[MrJim911]

Yikes. Thats just a poor scenario all around. Sounds like the consolidation was not very well thought out by the powers that be. Hopefully things will improve with time. Or your admin will start getting complaints from the officers when they start dealing with the lazy fire dispatchers that you have. Good luck.

[tcsd1236]

There have been numerous meetings on the issue and complaints from officers already. Hopefully things will get better.