Re: 911:: Memory Lapse

[Guest guest]

,

Don't you just hate that when the memory takes a siesta ?

I think this is what you are looking for.

Lorraine

St Louis County Comm, MN

AND GOD CREATED DISPATCHERS

The angel walked in and found the Lord walking around in a small circle and

muttering to himself.

" What are you working on now lord?' he asked.

" Well I finished creating a peace officer, now I'm working on a dispatcher "

Since the angel could see nothing in the room, he asked God to tell him

about it.

" It's some what like the police officer model, it has 5 hands-one for

answering the phone, two for typing, one for answering the radio, and one

for grabbing a cup of coffee. The arms had to be placed fairly carefully

since all the tasks a dispatcher does, have to be done simultaneously. The

digestive system is a little complicated, since it runs on coffee, and food

that can be delivered, but seldom needs to get up for the rest room. I made

the skin tempered duralite covered with Teflon. A dispatchers hide has to

be tough enough to withstand darts from cranky officers, jabs from

citizens, and lack of attention by administration, but not show any signs

of wear and tear. Unlike a police officer it only needs one pair of eyes,

so that left extra room for the ears. There are five sets of ears, one set

for the telephone, one for the main radio, two for the other radios it has

to monitor, and one to hear everything else going on around it. They fit

all right on the head, since it had to be extra large for the brain. The

brain has to be enormous so it can remember a full set of 10 codes,

phonetic alphabet, at least two hundred different voices, the entire

contents of three different SOP manuals, two Teletype manuals, and an NCIC

code book. Of course I left enough extra space for it to learn the

individual quirks of every different SGT., LT., Shift commander, fire

chief, and other supervisor, and the ability to keep them all straight.

There also has to be room for it to learn which situations need an officer

and which don't, and also the ability to determine in less than two minutes

what to do for any given event. There is a built in condenser so it can

take an hour long explanation, put it into 30 seconds worth of radio

transmission, but still get the whole story across.

Those switches on the front are for the emotions. It has to be able to talk

to a mother who's child has just died without pain, a rape victim with

empathy, a suicidal person with calmness and reassurance, and abusive drunk

without getting angry. When one of the officers yells for help, it can't

panic, and when someone doesn't make it, the dispatchers heart mustn't

break. The little soft spot just to the left of the emotion switch is for

abandoned animals, frightened children, and little old ladies who are

lonely and just want to talk to someone for a few minutes. The dispatcher

has to care very much for the officers and firefighters it serves, without

getting personally involved with any of them, so I added another switch for

that. Plus of course, the dispatcher can't have any of its own issues to

worry about while it is on duty, so that last switch turns those off. The

patience switch is turned up to high all the time on the CTO model, and

I've added an extra fuse to those to those to handle the overload.

A dispatcher has to be able to function efficiently under less than good

physical conditions, and be flexible enough to withstand whatever whim the

administration comes up with, while still retaining it's general shape and

form. That warm fuzzy shoulder is, there for officers to use when they

gripe, other dispatchers when they hurt, and for those who are shell

shocked by a horrible call and just need someone to be there. The voice

gave me a little trouble, it has to be clear and easy to understand, calm

and even when everyone else is screaming, but still able to convey empathy

and caring while remaining totally professional.

It runs for a full 12 hours on very little sleep, requires almost no days

off, and gets paid less than an executive secretary.

" The dispatcher sounds wonderful lord " , said the angel, " Where is this

amazing creation? "

" Well you see, " answered the supreme being " Dispatchers are invisible

unless they make a mistake. So it's practically impossible to tell when

they are run down, worn out or in need of repair. Now that I've created

them, I can't see the original model to make enough of them to go around. "

At 03:19 PM 4/19/2002 -0700, you wrote:

>Okay, I think I remember seeing this on the group before, but I could

>(most likely) be imagining things. I have the files " When God made

>Paramedics " and " When God made Correctional Officers " . I seem to recall

>seeing one for Dispatchers on the group in the past, but I can't find

>it. If anyone knows of one, could you please send it to me?

>

> ley

>Tulare County Sheriff Department

>Visalia, CA

>ley@...