Special week honors dispatchers

There’s an 11-year-old letter that Maria McCoy keeps in her purse.

She pulls it out and reads it when she needs to be reminded why she does what she does.

McCoy is communications supervisor for the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department, overseeing dispatchers who take emergency calls for sheriff’s deputies, as well as Shawano police, area fire departments and emergency responders.

She was a dispatcher herself before becoming supervisor about four years ago.

In 2004, she assisted a caller with a choking victim.

In addition to taking calls, a dispatcher has to be prepared to give instructions on what to do in emergencies until law enforcement or emergency personnel arrive on scene.

In this particular case, the caller was getting frustrated.

“They wanted to give up because of the amount of time and I continued to tell them, ‘Don’t give up, you have to keep doing this,’” McCoy said.

The victim survived and recovered fully from the incident. McCoy later received a letter of thanks.

“When I was in one of those slump moods where I was wondering why am I doing this job, I will pull that letter out and I will read it. ‘OK, this is why I do it,’” she said. “I’ve read that letter a lot. It’s what kept me going. I wish more of my dispatchers would get those. Sometimes it’s nice to get that pat on the back from the public.”

Last week was the national pat on the back for dispatchers. Each year a full week in April is dedicated to the men and women who serve as public safety telecommunicators. National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week this year ran from April 12-18.

McCoy said the general public often doesn’t understand what a dispatcher does, and that it’s more than just answering a phone.

“They don’t understand that the questions we’re asking are to assist us to decide who to send out, what response is needed for the call, whether it’s law enforcement, fire, EMS,” McCoy said.

“They think they can call in and simply scream, ‘Send a cop,’ or ‘Send the fire department,’” she said. “But there’s still so much more that the fire department and the cops need to know. They need to know what’s really going on.”

The caller is often panicked, but it’s the dispatcher’s job to calm them down enough to get the proper information so the proper response can be sent.

“If they can calm down enough to answer that, it gives us something to go by,” she said.

Then there are the cases where there is no information. Someone will dial 911 and hang up, or just put the phone down.

“We’ll tell (responding officers) whatever we hear in the background,” McCoy said. “Even when people hang up we have to send an officer out, but he’s going to be a lot more cautious in approaching the house.”

Shawano County dispatchers took 58,238 calls last year, including 9,937 911 calls, and dispatched either law enforcement, fire or EMS to 29,686 of those calls.

There is still the occasional nonemergency 911 call.

“People still call us for directory assistance,” McCoy said. “We have to counsel them that this is not a 911 call.”

Shawano County generally has three dispatchers on duty, though sometimes only two overnight.

It takes four months of training before they’re ready to take calls.

“There’s so much more involved than when I started 18 years ago,” McCoy said. “It used to be you pick up a phone and write it on a sheet of paper. Now we have all the computer programs, and with the computer programs you have to know how to enter all the correct information because the officer can look right at it as you’re putting the information in. You have to have a lot of accuracy going for you.”

Dispatchers are also trained in emergency response, so they will be able to provide any instructions necessary in an emergency until EMS personnel are on scene.

“A dispatcher is always the first contact. They are in essence the first responder,” McCoy said.

It’s not a profession to which everyone is suited.

“A lot of people don’t understand what it takes to be a dispatcher. They don’t realize the pressure a dispatcher works under,” McCoy said. “You sometimes roll from one call to the next. Sometimes you barely have time to run to the bathroom.”

Aside from the mandatory overtime — nights, weekends, holidays, the job can also take a psychological toll. And sometimes a dispatcher will know the people who are calling.

“We have one (dispatcher) who took a call where her grandmother had collapsed,” McCoy said. “You don’t get to disconnect the call and go collect yourself.”

McCoy said a dispatcher needs to be confident.

“If you question your ability, you’re not going to be able to make it,” she said. “But if you get that feeling of personal achievement, then you stay with it.”

The Shawano County Sheriff’s Department Communications Center staff includes supervisor Maria McCoy, lead dispatcher Kasey Cross and dispatchers Lisa Onesti, Deborah Godding, Rogene Wegner, Deanna Schuebel, Lucy Klosterman, Mary Beck, Kim Krause, Jennifer Peterson, Jamie Burris, Kathleen Poole, Malorie Notz, Kristin Orlando and Ethan Schmidt.

“The skills, knowledge, and dedication each dispatcher exhibits while assisting the public deserves recognition not only during this week of celebration but throughout the year,” Sheriff Adam Bieber said in a statement.