| What was your biggest success story and the one person who you just couldn't save? | My biggest success story would probably be the time when I held a 30 minute conversation with someone who was contemplating suicide. He would only give me his first name, his town, and that he was a convicted felon. He refused to give me his address so I could send someone out. He was also drunk. But after digging through past files and cross referencing them with convicted felons, I found him. I sent someone to his house, and we got him the help he needed. on his way to the mental health facility he asked the deputy to tell me thank you for saving his life. It made me realize how important my job is, and how much I love it. |
| Also most interesting person you spoke to? | The one I couldn't save.... I suppose the drownings are the hardest. By the time we can get someone out far enough to save them, they are usually gone. Don't swim in choppy waters... It's not worth it. |
| Wait i thought when you call 911 they automatically know where you are. | Not to the T. |
| Don't you have caller ID? | Kind of... only on land lines. |
| (2) Do you end up having to double-shift to cover people who don't show? | 1) 12 hours. |
| (3) Do you have to endure random drug testing? | 2) nope. |
| (4) Are there things you cannot legally say to a caller? To law enforcement, fire, or EMT? | 3) yes. |
| (5) Do you work in an open area, or are you in a booth like a tech support cube worker? | 4) yep. |
| (6) How many people are working at once? I assume there must be several. | 5) pods. |
| (7) Are you able to have a place at work you can go to try to disconnect and chill, and maybe eat some lunch? Do you still eat on the tough days, just to make sure you can be focused? | 6) 5 usually. |
| (8) Do you find it hard to focus when you've got home pressures? | 7) no, we don't. We eat on the job. |
| (9) Would you say your service is well run, or are you constantly fighting against a current just to get your job done? | 8) I don't have home drama usually... So, no. |
| (10) Are children better than adults at following directions once they understand them? | 10) not really sure, I guess it all depends. |
| 5 operators- how big of a city do you work in? And do you handle all dispatch, or is it just taking calls and putting them in the system and separate dispatchers handle sending out police, fire, etc? | Panama City, FL. Decent size. We only handle law enforcement. Anything else gets transferred. |
| Do you serve a local community, or is it like a 911 call center for places not nearby? | County wide. |
| What was the one call you'll always remember? | My first 911 call... It was a mother who had found her son hanging by a belt. He had committed suicide. I could barely understand what she was saying, because she was so hysterical. |
| That's crazy, your first call too. How'd that make you feel about the job, we you taken back? | I cannot tell a lie.... I cried. I cried like a baby. |
| Did you want to quit after that call? If you did, what made you stay? | The thought crossed my mind... But I wanted to help people, and this is the best I can do right now. |
| I called 999 (UK 911) last year because there was a wheel bouncing down the fast lane of the motorway. I felt like it was kinda abusing 999 because it didn't really feel like a proper emergency, but I figured anyone actually HITTING a wheel at 70+ mph is going to be injured or killed. Safe to say I was justified in calling? | Absolutely! That's a serious road hazard. You're a fine citizen. |
| I called 911 when I saw someone throwing stuff out of their vehicle at cars and driving erratically, the dispatcher said 'what do you expect me to do?'. I ended the call and called *55 on my cell (state highway patrol) and they said they had a unit really close and would get him. I ended up passing the truck a few miles ahead, the highway patrol pulled him over. I guess that means the dispatcher was just a dick? Thanks for being so nice. | That dispatcher needs to get a new job. |
| Aww yiss, I realise how stupid I was being that I was worried the operator sounded pissed / nonchalant and that I'd called in a non issue haha. | Well... This dispatcher would appreciate the call. |
| Are animals (moose particularly) on the highway considered a serious road hazard? | Yes they are lol. |
| If you got a call from a land line or payphone do you instantly see the address? | Yes, we do. It also gives us a room numbelot numbeor apt number. |
| What do you see if it's a VoIP phone? | I haven't had anyone call from a voIP phone that I know of... So I'm not sure. :/ |
| What information do you see if you get a call from a cell phone? | The number, the carrier, and an approx location... It's usually within a 100 ft. |
| Can you track the location of the cell phone? To what level of accuracy? | We can attempt to re-transmit to get a better location. Depending on the phone/carrier we can get it pinned to the exact house. |
| Do you got a lot of pocket dials? Does that make up a lot of false alarms? | We get a ton of pocket dials. I'm guessing about 1/6 are. we return the call and make sure that they don't have an emergency and act accordingly. |
| Do people prank call you? | Usually only kids do... And we try to hunt them down. |
| I like that. hunt them down. I can imagine a fully armed SWAT style Special Operations Unit designated specifically to prank calls, and standing by to unleash major manhunts for said prank callers. 911: "911 Emergency Response: What is your emergency?" * *[Unknown Voice]: *"Is... Is your refrigerator [snickers] running?" [More giggling barely audible] * 911: "This is 911 Emergency Response. Do you have an emergency?" * *[Unknown Voice]: *"Ummm.. Uhh.. [Unintelligible whispers] You should go catch it?" [Click] * 911: [To the room] "Okay, we have a Code Orange, Level 2! Get ready guys, it sounds like a sleepover!" Seven burly officers start strapping on kevlar and helmets, and several are loading shotguns. One officer is clipping flashbangs to his chest. [Que Cops intro] "Huh, Bad boys! Whatcha gun', whatcha gun', whatcha gunna' do? When Sheriff John Brown come for you." | That's exactly what happens. ;) |
| Corporate network administrator here, if the folks who set up the IP phones did their jobs correctly there would be no way for you (or anyone else) to tell that the caller was using an IP phone :) | Thank you! Then I've probably answered several. |
| Sorry, I know I'm a little late to the party. Maybe I've seen too many movies, but I imagine in any situation where one is in danger from another person, calling 911 might be risky and set the bad guy off. In this case, I might dial 911 and hang up. You would probably consider this a pocket-dial. When you call back, what does the number look like? Is it unlisted, or does it say "911"? | It shows an extension to our law enforcement agency that can be called back. |
| It must be hard to handle/get info from people on diffrent drugs (especially hallucigenics). 1) how often do people call about freak-outs on non-leathal drugs? | One of most dangerous drugs we deal with here is bath salts.... It's man made and extremely dangerous. |
| 3) how common is it that people call about "overdose" on: cannabis, LSD, shrooms or any of the research chemical hallucinogen? | This is an example of bath salts... That's also my voice taking the call. Link to www.youtube.com |
| Jesus Christ. Seems like most of the comments found that video hilarious but I thought it was terrifying. You can see in the guy's eyes that he is in distress but his brain is just NOT working as intended. What a terrible drug. | That video is scary. He's obviously not in his right mind. :/ |
| Did you say latah, as in latah county? As in Idaho? | Bay county... As in bay county FL. |
| That's you taking the call!? Crazy coincidence, I actually looked up that video about a week or two ago to see if there was any real footage of people whacked out on bath salts. Surprisingly, this is one of the only legit videos out there. Good job getting to him before it got worse. | Thank you... One of our deputies recorded and made the video so people would be aware of the effects. |
| I think the look in his eyes is the most disturbing part of that whole video. I've only seen that look twice, and both times "not good" was an understatement. | And he was calm compared to.other bath salts users... Some get extremely combative. |
| Has anybody called because they were bored/lonely? | We have a crazy lady in our county that calls when she's lonely... It's sad. We send someone out to check on her. |
| It's nice that you guys do that. Who do you actually send on those kind of outings? And do they just pop in to say hi or actually stay and chat for a bit? | We send a patrol unit. And depending on the officer he will usually stay and chat a bit. Our agency tries to be very active in the community and help when we can. I wouldn't want to work for any other agency. |
| My grandma calls you guys when her fire alarm batteries go out, sorry haha. | Aww, it happens. :) |
| Say I was in a hostage situation or something and I dialed 911 but then they put a gun to my head and told me to say I dialed the wrong number and hang up- is there a universal phrase or word that I can say that all (or most) dispatchers know and will recognize that there is an actual emergency? | If you sounds like you're in distress most dispatchers will recognize that tone. I have asked questions that only require yes or no responses because I knew they were in trouble. |
| The longer you keep the operator on the phone, the better chance we have of finding your location. |
| What is your favorite breakfast, lunch and dinner to have on your days off? | Eggs and toast for breakfast. |
| Spinach Salad for lunch. |
| Mexican food for dinner. |
| What was the point in this question? Lol. |
| Well, it is an Ask Me Anything ;) | Haha... Point taken. ;) |
| How often do you receive calls from kids who just want to see what happens when they call? | Every damn day. It gets quite annoying. Especially when the phone is out of service and we can't call it back. |
| True story. When I was about 6 or 7 or something, and I had worked out that Santa and the Tooth Fairy weren't real - I assumed that 111 (that's the number here) wasn't real either, so I dialled to test the hypothesis. (Then hung up immediately when they did answer). | Tadaa! Lol. |
| One night I was working and the police showed up at my building, saying somebody dialed 911. Don't know who did it, but my theory was that you had to dial 9 to get an outside line, 1 for long distance, then the person probably had to look again at a paper, and then dialed 1 again, said "Aw poo" and hung up and dialed correctly again, not realizing what they did. Do you get a lot of dialing errors from corporate addresses? | Yes we do. Hotels mostly. |
| In my town there was this incident of a jealous ex boyfriend holding a gun to his ex girlfriend. The current boyfriend called 911 just wondering what to do and telling her(the operator) what he should do. The operator started off semi-helpful until things started getting more out of hand. The current boyfriend is of course scared and desperate, you could hear it in his voice and the operator starts getting smart with the caller telling him to be quiet, calm down and whatnot. (they put this on news) How could he be calm in that situation? Shouldn't the operator have talked to him more about the situation? Who calls 911 calmly? "uh, 911, it appears there is a man with a gun pointed at my gf, would you kindly help?" | Is it a smaller town? Some agencies aren't prepared for traumatic events... That would not be tolerated here. If he wasn't in distress I would be worried. |
| If you don't want to anwser this questions, that's okay. I'm just a curious guy. What's your salary? Do earn/get bouneses? W.e u call it bonus....blahh If yes how often? Annualy or montly and how much ? Just curious thank you in advance | Our salary is 26,000 with opportunity to work overtime. We sometimes get bonuses at Christmas ranging from $100 - 500. |
| Very sad that you don't get paid more for what you do. | Yeah, that would be nice. Lol. |
| Holy crap...that's insane! Do you at least get some sort of free counseling? | I'm sure we do... But I didn't look into it. |
| If i were to call, what could I do to ensure that you understand me? Sorry I didn't know how to phrase the question. | Know where you are and answer the dispatchers questions. And please, please be patient. we're trying our hardest to help you. |
| Is 911 texting real? Is it going to be? | Not for our agency... But I've heard rumors about other agencies having it. |
| Do you ever answer your cell phone/home phone and respond with "911, what's your emergency?" | I have before lol.... But I hate being on the phone outside of work. I text instead. |
| You must be younger than 30 :-D. | ) |
| That's so clever. Anyone fall for it? | Yeah, they don't think twice about it. Lol. |
| Can you reveal the state or area? | Florida Panhandle... I live in the spring break capital of the world. :) |
| I'm dispatch up in Baltimore, MD... I despise water calls, I can only imagine how many you get. | Spring break is a nightmare. |
| Hmm, I dispatch at Eglin. You have the same desks as us, and the same centracom radios. You even have the same wireless radio handsets. However, that keyboard is foreign to me, therefor, I know it isn't in my dispatch center. Where the fuck do you work sir. | It's ma'am. ;) |
| And Bay Co SO |
| Oh boy....i went there on a few of my spring breaks. Stayed at the Holiday Inn Sunspree. A dude actually fell of a balcony while trying to climb from one floor to another. | Yeah... That's a common occurrence during spring break. :/ |
| Panama City Florida. I'm from F.W.B. i can only imagine the calls you get. | Neighbor! :)) |
| As another Florida Panhandler I sympathize with you, you must get some absolutely insane calls. We've got some crazy people here. :p I'm not from Panama City, but I'm from a well known city that's just a hundred miles or so away. | Another neighbor! :) |
| If it's panama city, I've spent a fair amount of time there, one of the few great places of florida. | Tis Panama City. |
| I live in your area, I worked at Sallie Mae until it closed down :( keep up the great work! | Sorry about your job. :/ I had a friend at Sallie Mae also. |
| Grew up on that beach. I've got a buddy who currently is an EMT there. How many calls do you guys (and gals) average during spring break? | Way too many... I have the stats somewhere. |
| Shout out from Pensacola! HOLLA! | What up? Haha. |
| I'm also from the Florida panhandle. I've lived all over the FWB area! Tons of my family are still there. Small world, reddit. Thank you for what you do! Being a hero, and all. :) | Not a hero... Just a helper. ;) |
| Up here, winter...oh my lord, Snowmageddon. | Haha... I'm glad we don't have to deal with snow. No one down here can drive, and that means that they definitely can't drive in snow. |
| Do you work nights? If so I'm fairly certain I talk to you on a nightly basis on the FIN. | I just switched to night shift.... What agency? |
| I'm Eglin Fire. Any FIN call you do into Eglin would come to my center. I'll be working Fri/Sat/Sun. Should you do a FIN test, you'll get me. | Two months ago, I called you guys every other night lol. |
| I don't work this weekend... But I'm sure one of our people will annoy you. Lol. |
| Small world. :) |
| What has been the scariest call you've recieved ? | A bomb threat. |
| How did you handle it? Like what did you say to the person | We have a list of questions we are required to ask. The scary part was when the deputies were clearing the building.... The waiting. |
| Did they specify where? Like a school, train/bus station, something of that nature? I don't mean to cross any lines, just curious is all. | It was a well known business. |
| Did it end up being legitimate? | Nope... False alarm. |
| While it's on my mind now, I have a related story and then a question. The story isn't necessary to understand the question, but the story's what made me think of it. :P. My mom was in a casino when she was told that there was a man with a gun in the building, so she and a bunch of others were evacuated. My dad was in their hotel room, so she called him and told him about the gunman and said that it was probably best to lock everything and stay inside. However, when she got to the evacuation spot, she was told that there was a bomb in the building. She asked the person who told her there was a gunner, and the employee said that the officer was wrong. Trying to get the story straight - reacting to a gun and a bomb are completely different - she asked a different officer, who said there was a gun. After a short while, everything seemed to be figured out, and everyone was allowed back into the casino. Nothing happened, thankfully, but I don't think it takes much imagination to think of what could have happened. So, have you experienced any sort of miscommunication like this? If so, were you able to straighten it out, and how did you do that? If not, is there a procedure to iron these things out? | When we recurve multiple calls about an incident every story is different. :/ different color vehicle, the white person is black, and apparently green shorts look white. It's a cluster sometimes. |
| "It WAS" | Haha IS. sorry. |
| I'm taking a dispatcher class at my highschool this upcoming year. Are there any tips you could give someone if they were new to your field? | That's awesome! We didn't have anything like that at my high school. Multitasking is the biggest part of my job. I alternate between talking to people on the phone, radio, and in the room all at once. |
| I heard a lot of 911 operators get PTSD or just find the emotional toll of the job too heavy. Does it ever get to you? | The first year was really hard... You have to learn how to get your job done without letting the emotional part effect you. It's still hard at times. The most difficult calls for me are when children are in danger or have been killed. |
| Do you often learn the fate of the people you help? | Yes... :/ it's nice to have closure, but it's still sad to hear of the death. |
| Do they offer any resources such as counseling and the like? | Not to my knowledge. :/ |
| If your center is NENA compliant, you must have counseling available. Check your employee bulletin board. | We probably do... I just haven't seen it, or looked hard enough. |
| How many calls would you say you receive a night? | A couple thousand maybe. |
| How many of those are responded to urgently? Like, say, a domestic violence call with a weapon vs. a noise complaint? | I wanna say about 60% of our calls are priorities. |
| Do you work 3 days, then have 4 off? No idea how you manage to do that for 12 hours. I'm amazed by people who can do any high-stress, high-stakes job for 12 hours at a stretch. Well-oiled machine indeed. There's definitely no chance to get rusty. | Two on, two off, three on, two off, two on, three off |
| What are some of the things that are illegal to say to a caller / emergency responder? | We can't give legal advice to callers. |
| What's your favourite type of salad dressing? | Balsamic vinaigrette. ;) |
| Next time you're in P'cola, hit The Bodacious Olive downtown. Dozens of badass vinaigrettes. Just got me some Maple Vinaigrette. It's so good I keep a small bottle on me at all times. That good. | That sounds devine. I might just do that. |
| Might seem silly but I've always wondered... If I was being threatened and managed to subtly call 911 but wasn't able to say anything (for fear of the person noticing) would you realise what was happening if I stayed on the line? Or would it be assumed that it's a pocket dial? | If it was a land line then I would automatically send someone out. if it's a cell phone I would stay on the lone and listen for any clues of location and attempt to narrow down your location. |
| What do you say when you pick up? | It was, "Bay county 911, what is your emergency?" |
| Now it's, "Sheriff's office 911, what is your emergency?" |
| How often do you answer your personal phone this way? If you do how often do people think they made an error? | I think I've only done it once or twice... And I had just woken up. Lol I think they realized I was crazy and continued their conversation. ;) |
| Do you have a favorite (preferred) type of call? | I like to talk to crazy people.... |
| How fast do you type? (in words per min) | 75-80 WPM. ;) |
| Jesus Christ, is this a required speed, or just a profession? | Required is only 35WPM. |
| Don't take this too seriously, but... What's your K/D ratio? | Not sure... I try not to kill people. |
| Would you rather be a 0118 999 881 999 119 7253 operator? | Nope. :) I'm content. |
| What is your opinion on this: Link to www.youtube.com. In the span of your career have you ever witnessed a co-worker do something similar? If not, what is the worst way you have ever seen a call handled? | That's awful. We have some older ladies that are extremely slow and hard of hearing (close to retirement) and it bothers me to watch them take a call. |
| Whats the craziest/weirdest call you've received? Something that made you pause and think "what the fuck...?" | A guy told me his ex gf had turrets of the vagina and that.her new bf was pimping her out and taking advantage of her. I seriously stopped and was like... Wtf!? I asked the man if he was serious, and what turrets of the vagina was... He then Explained the condition and told me he saw it on Oprah. |
| Do you always call people back? My friend once butt-dialed 911, and they called back telling her not to hang up next time that happened. Is there a reason not to hang up? | On cell phones we don't respond unless you say you have an emergency... So of you stay on the line to let us know you're ok, that'd be great. |
| Im an EMT on a first aid squad in new jersey. Whenever we get calls it seems like the dispatchers always screw something up. Either hitting out the wrong tones for the squad, or just mumbling while giving the dispatch. Is it easy to mess up? like giving wrong info or hitting out wrong tones? | I don't make it a habit to fuck up. and I've been told I have a lovely radio voice. Maybe you need new dispatchers. |
| Why is it that when multiple phone calls are made to the same place the police are notified? For example, when I called my sister like 25 times in a row for pranks calls the police called, and asked me why I was calling that phone number so much. | We don't have that system.... That's weird. |
| Do you have to send a officer out for every call? Even if you know its a little kid or a mistake? | If it's a land line, yes. |
| A little late here, but what percentage of your calls would you estimate involve alcohol? | 40% lol or 80% during spring break. |
| Do they keep an active record of things like "Chronic Callers"? Or people who call often with non emergencies? If so, are you just notified with a status or are they eventually rerouted to a different calm center or anything? | We have some that are taken to jail for harassment of 911. But it rarely holds up in court. |
| Have you ever received any prank calls that, while they were annoying at the time, you look back on and find funny? | Sometimes they say funny things... But it's still annoying because it's tying up a line that a person may need. |
| Does your town use 911 for non-emergency calls as well? I know several regions where if you call the local PD directly for non-emergency stuff they will tell you to call 911 so it can go through that dispatch system. | No, we do not. We refer you to a non emergency number if you call 911 without an emergency. |
| I'm sorry for the boring and crudely written question, but I always wondered this: Is it ok to call 911 if your car runs out of gas or you get a flat tire (or for other similar events which aren't exactly emergencies)? Is there a specific department and number that can be called for these type of events? | If you're in a town that you're not familiar with I suppose that would be ok... But calling the non emergency number for the police dept would be ideal. |
| Thank you. Does the non-emergency number vary from location to location or is it a standard number like 911? | It varies :/ |
| Why do most operators have an attitude with the callers? | A lot of dispatchers do not like their job unfortunately. :/ |
| How frequent do you get calls? Are you ever bored? | Sometimes we have down time and it gets slow.... But only during the night, and it usually doesn't last long. |
| The number in my country is 112..when I was a kid I dialled 111111222222 or something like that thinking that nothing would happen (silly). The suddenly an emergency operator picked up. Is this a feature that you incorporate as well and do you think it is meant to make people in distress easier to reach the emergency line? I've often thought about this. | I believe our system does the same thing. |
| Was I out of line to call and report the guys in the boat? I mean, I guess I just hope that if somebody saw me and I looked like I needed help that they'd call 911. I'd rather have an officer appear and me need nothing than to be desperate for help and feel like nobody was watching. | You did the right thing in my book. ;) |
| I've had to call 911 a lot for various reasons and I want to say thanks to you and others like you who do your job so well. :) Also, because of medical conditions I have, I've trained my kids to call 911 (and even read off my medic alert ID if necessary)...is there something you would recommend me telling them/teaching them in the event that they have to call on my behalf (or anyone's, really)? | That we are there to help them. :) |
| Do you actually dispatch or do you take the 911 calls and someone else nearby dispatches out the appropriate apparatus/personnel. Do you do both? Do all systems do it the same? | I do it all... Answer, dispatch, and run warrants. |
| Do you look at the world in a different light now? How long have you been doing this? | Three years.... And I'm definitely not as naive. |
| Probably buried now, but during a shift do you usually have a constant stream of calls, or will you sometimes sit around for half an hour waiting for the phone to ring? | Usually pretty constant. :) |
| Do you ever follow a case just to see what happened? I couldnt imagine answering a 911 call about some hostage situation and then just handing it over to local PD and not knowing what happened. How do you find out if you really want to know what happened? | We have access to reports for our agency. |
| Does keeping the GPS turned on on my cell phone make it easier and faster for you guys to find me? Or is the cell phone tower signal just as fast? | I'm not sure... I should look into that. |
| I called 911 when a car almost hit a bike rider then the bike rider started yelling. exact quote: YO BITCH YOU WANNA GO? I HAVE A KNIFE! driver: COME AT ME BRO! Did I do it right? | Perfect... If you're in Jersey Shore . |
| What's the average length of a 911 call? | Less than two minutes. |
| If you don't mind me asking how much money do you make a year? You do not have to answer this question. Also what really happens if I call 911 and then hang up real quick? | 26k... And I'll call you right back. |
| THAT'S NOT ENOUGH... and duly noted. Thank you. | Yes, I know. :/ I feel like I should set up a donation box to feed the poor. (me) lol. |
