Lord forbid you should expect someone to know their address!

So this morning after returning to work after being out sick I begin to sift through the 99 emails in my work account. One of them catches my eye. It is a 'Heads up' email from our Director. A local newspaper owner decided to write an editorial about the 911 center and her experiences with same. Well I'm sure you can tell from the title of this that it did not display our best side.

http://www.luminanews.com/article.asp?aid=9407&iid=301&sud=44


Now let me post some points.
~ Just because Someone lives on an island that is know for it's snobbery does not mean they are better than me or any of the emergency services that serve their area.
~ Human error happens, on both ends of the phone
~ 2nd graders know their home address, adults should as well
~ No matter how much training and territorial studies we do it is impossible to memorize every street name, business name, inlet, creek, bridge, geographic marker, etc. in our area.
~ This center dispatches ALL Fire resources, EMS resources and 6 different Local Law Enforcement agencies. That Island is not the only responsibility we have.
~ When a major event occurs, such as a vehicle out of control running across 4 lanes of traffic and crashing into a house, everyone and their brother call in to report it. Lines are flooded with more calls than there is dispatchers. It takes more than 34 seconds to field a 911 call coming into the center, especially if it is one of the first calls about the incident

I welcome anyone that thinks this job is easy or that I am some reject they hired because of  tough economic times, come into the 911 center and observe. Sit here with me for 12 hours. Take 3 timed 10 minute breaks. Don't forget to bring your lunch or some money for take out food, cause  there are no lunch breaks in this 911 center. I hope you don't mind cold food because we do not stop working when we get our food, 911 is ringing. Wear something comfortable, you will be 'leashed' to a console and there is not a lot of lead for walking/stretching. Also don't forget to wear your big girl panties cause some random stranger is going to cuss you out, tell you who they know that will have your job, remind you that they pay your wages (I'm still waiting on that raise), expect you to know where they are and what the suspects look like because they told you they are in the red car across the street by the 2 oak trees. Be prepared to deliver a baby, do CPR, talk a mentally unstable person out of a homicidal rage, calm the mother of a choking baby, talk a teenager out of suicide, console an elderly man who just woke to to find his wife of 50 years dead.

Do I need to go on?

To all the dispatchers out there that read this, Keep doing the amazing job that you do every day.
We, the unwilling, Lead by the Unknowing, Do the Impossible, For the benefit of the Ungrateful. ~~ Unknown.