RE: [911:: Lone Dispatchers]

[Guest guest]

Hi,

As I sit alone and ponder your question I find that in my mind,

No, we have no protocol for checking on the Dispatcher.

Glad to hear everything will be ok.

and No, it is not safe.

We have no way to lock the front door. We do have bullet resistant

glass and the wall to the lobby is also resistant, kevlar lined.

This is a great improvement over our old room.

We have a panic button that sounds a tone over the radio. Last time

we tested it nobody responded until the third time the button was

pushed. The response was, " What is wrong with the radio? There are strange

tones on it! "

I don't honestly see a small Department having 2 on duty, especially

on midnights. It may take an act of Congress, literally, to have

this happen. If this did happen I could see waves of consolidated

centers popping up everywhere. We do have a 2 person minimum on

midnights but we are very short, like everywhere else, so here I sit,

alone.

The best thing to do may be to bring this to the attention of a

supervisor, yours, the shift's or the chief. Maybe an hourly radio

check or calls to neighboring agencies will fill the gap for now.

I wish I had an answer but....I wait with baited breath to see what

happens.

prg wrote:

For those of you that work alone... does your agency have a protocol for

" checking " on the Comm Officers?

<<SNIP>>

Now to my point... Last week, our senior dispatcher passed out on

shift. Luckily, an officer and a supervisor were in the building going

over reports. Rescue called, disaptcher transported, couple days off to

recover and she's good as new

<<SNIP>>

I made a point that it's not safe for us to be alone... I feel they know

it's not safe..

<<SNIP>>

Glad y'all are here to listen...at least someone does =)

Take care - be safe

patrick KG4DWM

FAUPD Communications

Mike Nicholson

RadioMike426@...

Still in Northbrook Illinois after all these years.

These are my opinions, not those of my

employer, co-workers, family, friends or

any other sentient being.

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[Guest guest]

I had wandered about this same problem recently only with one of our hired

security guards at our Rehab Center. We have a system in place for check

up's every couple of hours on midnights. Plus now we moved we are upstairs

and they are down, so we see them more often. But they tend to send older

gentleman to work at our place. Nothing wrong with that per say but it was

recently a topic of conversation because one of our guards fell outside

while leaving work. He tripped over uneven concrete in the sidewalk.

Banged himself up pretty good, requiring 9 stitches above his eye and three

across the bridge of his nose. He sat outside a few minutes before anyone

found him. I happened to find him about the same time 2 other people did. I

later found out that he is 70 years old, 5 previous heart attacks, diabetic,

working 12 hour shifts as the lone guard of our work release inmates in the

rehab center. Now first off one young inmate could take this poor guy out

in one good swing (he is not armed in any way), second of all I am just glad

I never found him in a diabetic coma or full arrest one long midnight shift

(it was bad enough finding him bleeding on the sidewalk out front). BTW

they have reassigned him to a easier place to work with less steps to walk

up and down. It made me really curious about how often we check on these

guards. I can recall several problems in the past with this, like the time

the guard locked himself in with the inmates and had left his radio and man

down alarm at the front desk. It is just a problem waiting to rear it's

ugly head.

Second of all with the new building these guards " greet " everyone coming

into our building. (Because we are on the second floor with no public

access). This has caused a few recent dilemmas. Problem #1 the guards are

often away from the desk, if someone comes to the front door with an

emergency they are not guaranteed that someone will be there. Number 2

(which was quickly taken care of) these guards were letting anyone upstairs

that said they needed the Sheriff's Office. Had 3 girls walk in dispatch

one day and request a copy of a report, an inmate come in to ask about his 3

days of time to serve, and the newspaper guy tapped on of the midnight girls

on the shoulder one night. This is an old classroom with nothing to protect

us from the public but the guard downstairs that just let them in. But like

I said that was taken care of with a policy issued to the guards and locked

doors going upstairs.

I have also wandered what they would do one of the days we have a lone

dispatcher if the dispatcher fell suddenly ill and had to be transported. I

can remember them leaving a dispatcher that was 8 months pregnant on a shift

by herself before, doesn't seem like a big deal til they go in labor (thank

god it didn't happen to us).

Annette didn't you have a similiar problem with a dispatcher with a medical

condition that caused her to pass out often??

Sara

[Guest guest]

<<snip>>

Annette didn't you have a similiar problem with a dispatcher with a medical

condition that caused her to pass out often??

Sara

<<snip>>

Good memory, Sara!

Yes, we did. Had a dispatcher pass out while alone. At the time, we had a

policy that the dispatch door be kept locked. We had a window to conduct

business which was pretty big, but not real big. Apparently, she had a

hypoglycemic condition that was not diagnosed yet. Officers started calling

her on the radio and didn't get an answer. A plainclothes officer was in

the back and came up to see what was going on. Found her passed out on the

floor, turning blue and the phone was ringing. The officer was able to

climb through the window (good thing she didn't have her Sam Browne belt

on!) and get her some help.

When I got there, I ran the tape back. A couple of her transmissions

sounded as if she were drunk, in retrospect. I don't think the officers

picked up on it. The the phone rang and she picked it up but didn't say

anything. The caller started saying hello? hello? Then she started

giggling and hung up. The caller called back, but the phone rang and

rang... The the officers started calling her on the radio.

She eventually was terminated because she was in denial about her condition

and didn't follow her doctor's advice. Last I heard she was dispatching at

some other small PD.

But even regular checks on dispatchers wouldn't prevent this from happening.

Only another person in the room would be able to pick up on problems like

this. If you do timechecks every half hour and two minutes after your

timecheck some nut gets to your dispatcher or something else happens. It

would be 30 minutes before a problem is suspected - if there is someone to

notice. Some state and county police agencies allow their officers to go

home after a certain time and are called out for major calls. The only one

awake is the dispatcher. Who is going to check on them?

annette hallmark

ahallmark@...