ThrobbingHood
“I’m Sorry for 2025”
Imagine just being shot at and this is what you have to deal with.
From this thread originally:
Are they hiring 911 dispatchers straight from Popeyes now? SMH.
- Thread starter ThrobbingHood
- Start date
Imagine just being shot at and this is what you have to deal with.
From this thread originally:
Field Marshall Bradley
Veteran
That operator wasn’t that bad… but her tone definitely needs some work. I’ve heard worse 911 dispatch calls
darealvelle
Real Talk
Popyes?! This 911 operator is getting a 5 on a survey compared to Popeyes worker.
F*ckthemkids
Superstar
I expected something totally different given the thread tittle. 
OP had me thinking dispatcher was like:
Instead I got a jawn that probably just started and needs to work on her patience, especially with accents.
Instead I got a jawn that probably just started and needs to work on her patience, especially with accents.
Youhadasparkwhenustarted
Superstar
I was a dispatcher for like six months and it's legitimately one of the toughest jobs out there. I actually feel for the operator because people have no idea how tough it is to handle these calls. It's constant high pressure situation after another, with situation changing dynamically and you're expected to think clearly while logging all information accurately in a CAD system (sometimes by hand when the software is down). It's even tougher when the person on the other end has a thick ass accent like that and can't seemingly understand the shyt you're saying either. Not to mention dispatchers are severely underpaid (I think they should all be paid double what they make), constantly work 12-16 hour shifts because most dispatch centers are extremely understaffed (due to stress and pay), and likely have incurred some trauma themselves due to the nature of the calls they take( The get free therapy as a dispatcher and they need that shyt trust me). shyt seems easy until you take a call from some who has just been raped, or is standing by their loved one while they bleed out, or someone is currently in their house after breaking in and the person you're talking too is hiding for their dear life, and that's happening while you're dealing with all of the other stuff I mentioned.
Then you gotta figure out how and where to dispatch the officers by proximity, their designated post, whether they're tending to another call, take and log updates of each officers location if they don't update it themselves, and prioritize calls if you're flooded with traffic and there's not enough dispatchers to take the calls; You're car got broken into, sorry breh fukk you for now I got somebody on the other line who's son is dying in their arms you're gonna have to wait.
I got into dispatching at the time because I thought the pay was good and it would be easy bread (22 an hour back then) but NOPE! I wouldn't do that shyt for 40 an hour. I ain't mean to vent but dispatching was the worst time of my life.
Then you gotta figure out how and where to dispatch the officers by proximity, their designated post, whether they're tending to another call, take and log updates of each officers location if they don't update it themselves, and prioritize calls if you're flooded with traffic and there's not enough dispatchers to take the calls; You're car got broken into, sorry breh fukk you for now I got somebody on the other line who's son is dying in their arms you're gonna have to wait.
I got into dispatching at the time because I thought the pay was good and it would be easy bread (22 an hour back then) but NOPE! I wouldn't do that shyt for 40 an hour. I ain't mean to vent but dispatching was the worst time of my life.
Whats the craziest call you had
Youhadasparkwhenustarted
Superstar
Funny I was actually reminiscing on shyt after that post. The craziest call was from somebody who was on top of a bridge on the westside of my city; over the Genesee river in Rochester NY (if anybody is from the area they know where I'm talking about). He was a student, grades were fukked up and he didn't want to go home overseas ( I think he was from China somewhere). He was student who went to the U of R, The of U of R has their own dispatch center with their own officers who have powers of arrest ( a lot of big schools do) but he called 911 and it defaulted to us. So I'm entering this into the CAD system we have as basically a cry for the other dispatchers to help me (we all get live updates on calls) and one dispatches our PD while the other gets in contact with the U of R. The senior dispatcher mouths to me " Hold him on the line" and basically that means I have to keep him from jumping.
To be blunt, I've been suicidal before, and I broke the dispatcher facade and just spoke to him man to man. We talk about his life, his girlfriend, my son, his family, and at the end I told him something I realized before and that we've all been in tough situations, and that he has too, and we didn't think we'd make it through, but we did, and this just another situation that he'll make it through too. It calmed him down some, I think he just wanted someone to talk too, most suicidal gestures are a cry for help, but I was maybe a month into finally taking calls on my own, and that was the first time I felt like I directly controlled the outcome of the situation and that came with a pressure I can't describe man. I got through the call but I didn't feel good for some reason, I don't know why, maybe because I realized that it might not be the last time I deal with a situation like that. I talked with the room and they ALL had at least one call with a suicidal person before.
I dealt with a lot of shootings and murders too. When you first dispatching you have to start on the grave shift, but to be real they happened so much they started to blend in with each other. Some nights I wouldn't get a single one, another we'd get 4 in 2 hours. The one that stands out to me was a mother calling because he 7 year old daughter got shot in the head. I remember the police escorting her and the ambulance to the hospital and one of the officers radioed in once they were there, and I could hear the mother crying in the background and the wail she let out I will never forget, it chilled me to the fukking bone. I found out later on the news that the girl died.
*Another random thing I remembered, is we couldn't give out any medical information, so if someone called up asking if so and so was okay, and we know they're dead, we can't say shyt, it's a sick feeling.*
The shyt I dealt with wasn't over the top crazy, it was just over the top depressing to be real.
Youhadasparkwhenustarted
Superstar
There was a couple of situations where I had to send back up for an officer who drew down on somebody, nothing came from either situation but they made me consider for the first time that I can be sending someone either to help save an officer, or I'm sending someone to a state sanctioned murder and I'm helping them do so. I know it sounds dumb but before I got hired on I didn't realize how intimately I'd work with officers, and that I might share blame in any fukk ups that happens too. We got plenty of complaints about officers there that we'd have to type up and report to the chief. A lot of the officers are dikks who hated us because they thought we sucked and we where easy scapegoats. We knew which officers had the temperament to do certain things and wouldn't be surprised if we got a call that they were verbally or physically abusive. Not every dispatcher is pro police to the point that they want to see officers just get away with shyt, most want officers to get charged when they deserve it, but we all knew nothing would ever happen regardless of how bad they deserve. Just toxic all around.
