Guest guest Posted August 17, 2003 Report Share Posted August 17, 2003 I'll have to agree. I started Dispatching when I was only 17yoa. The Sheriff's Office did have an age requirement but they hired me anyway. I have been dispatching since I am going on 20yoa now. I would recommend hiring someone young as long as they acted mature and the probationary times will allow for that observation.. I have since left the Sheriff's Office where we dispatch Police, Fire, Medical, E-911 and am currently at an Airport Dispatch Center. Quite a change and everyday I miss the joy of saving lives and taking 911 calls... Never thought i would say it but the job " grows on you " Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 25, 2003 Report Share Posted September 25, 2003 Has anyone had this type of scenario occur with their agency and if so, please share how or what was done to make this a workable, but more importantly safe deal. Recently it has come to the attention of our agency (Sheriff's Dept) that due to a huge cut in available funds (sound familiar), one of the villages within our county is recommending closing their dispatch center and having the Sheriff's dept. take on their police, fire and ems dispatching duties. The population of this village is a little over 10K. They presently have 5 full-time and 1 part-time dispatcher. The county has 8 full-time dispatchers. This proposal does not include adding any staff what so ever to the county's present staffing list. Supposidly there is a State Statute that basically states, it is our duty to take on these responsiblities with NO compensation from the Village what so ever. We have a state of the art dispatch center true, however, lets face it, we all know that when it rains it pours and there is no way that one dispatcher (which is how we often work) can handle the capacity of an additional 10K more in population and their services. Officer safety will definately be put at a lower level just simply because there is only so much one can do. Any information would be greatly appreciated..... Thank you Faith Ann Poppy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 25, 2003 Report Share Posted September 25, 2003 I know in Ohio it is the responsibilities of the Sheriff Office to take on the duty of law enforcement if something like that happens. I know just a few weeks ago a village got rid of the entire police department, police officers and dispatchers. And the Sheriff Office had to take over. I don't think they found out about it until they seen the media reports. We have another village around our area that may do the same Jim Columbus Police Columbus Ohio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 25, 2003 Report Share Posted September 25, 2003 I can only speak with confidence regarding the State of Michigan. In my state, the only legislated responsibility the sheriff has is to operate and maintain a jail. Road patrol, investigative services, dispatch services, etc are all gravy to the taxpayers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 26, 2003 Report Share Posted September 26, 2003 Interesting as to how the local people found out about their situation as same thing happened here. There was no discussion or notification of a news release regarding the proposal of closing this villages dispatch center. Not even with our Sheriff!! It was announced in the Milwaukee paper where we all found out the news. My heart goes out to the village dispatchers because that just isn't right not to even touch on the word fair. Last night I attended their local town meeting where the only topic was to be this extremely volatile topic. I found it interested that there actually were very few citizens there. Obviously the ones that were there were very concerned regarding the possibility of a change in response time however, they are not thinking about the fact that we would be dispatching their same officers who are still on their roads or their fire dept. that will not be moving their stations so therefore a change in response time would only happen if a call had to be placed on hold while another was being taken due to lack of staffing. This village handles approx. 29K calls in coming calls/year and 17K actual police responded incidents. The main issues were brought to the board from their actual staff, Police officers, Fire Fighters and EMS personnel who stressed the importance of the personal knowledge of their own dispatch center and the service unit's staff. Ok......so we as county dispatchers were made to look like chop meat but that we expected and in honesty I thought it pretty neat how their dispatchers were supported by their officers et. al. One Officer really hit on the topic of how this was announced and the man who was responsible didn't even seem to flinch. Wonderful PR person......NOT!! He seems to have about as much knowledge about what a dispatcher does as the " general " Joe citizen yet feels this is just the best way to save money.....and feels there would be no loss of quality of service at all. The sad thing is and I think most of you all know, as a dispatcher, we dedicate ourselves to making things we face each day work smoothly. If this actually goes through yes, we'll do the best darn job we can to make it work holding Officer Safety, response time and PR that we must give the best shot we can........and if it does work these jerks who just sit back and through this out will say, see, I told you it could be done. Off to by a Large bottle of Advil............. Faith Ann Poppy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 26, 2003 Report Share Posted September 26, 2003 > Recently it has come to the attention of our agency (Sheriff's Dept) that > due to a huge cut in available funds (sound familiar), one of the villages > within our county is recommending closing their dispatch center and having > the Sheriff's dept. take on their police, fire and ems dispatching duties. > Faith Ann Poppy ******************************************************************** Fight this with all you have. Even IF you could take this on without any new personnel, and without any increase in traffic (yeah right), once they start to dump more work on you without extra compensation, the sky is the limit. Plus dumping more work on you without compensation shows me (you) that the powers that be don't care about dispatch (in this case) nor what happens to you. If they are successful, request a revamp of your job duties, a revamp of your evaluation processes. The reason: more work without more help will cause delays, potential problems with a new, maybe, unfamiliar area. As you can see the problems by this dump & run scenario are many and varied. Look at the output or product or whatever you want to call it. Will the output be affected by this dump & run? You bet, and without extra help, definitely to the negative. Iowa State Patrol Communications, Cedar Rapids Werling NØXZY Anamosa, IA scott@... My 2002 Olympic Pics http://www.photoisland.com login: Ridgeroader password: blah My Family Genealogy at http://www.n-connect.net/scott/index.htm When I was in college I had a bumper sticker that said " Repeal Ohms Law. " People would ask me where they could sign the petition. I told them we expected to encounter a lot of resistance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 26, 2003 Report Share Posted September 26, 2003 As was previously stated, fight with every means you have the idea of taking on new depts and responsibilities without being compensated. In the past three years our department has taken on 2 new police depts, 6 new fire depts, and institituted EMD and EFD--all without a single penny of additional compensation for us dispatchers. Management takes the position that its up to the union to obtain raises through negotiations, which is true to a point. But nothing prevents an administrative increase with the acquisition of new depts, particularly since they negotiate dollars into their contract with the municipalities to cover dispatch services! Another example of them sticking it to the man! Jumping down and folding up my portable soapbox... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 26, 2003 Report Share Posted September 26, 2003 our center is funded by county funds totally. We too have been mandated to make cuts due to those budget things also which is forcing our Sheriff to cut 6.5 positions (non-dispatch). I believe 4 are sworn positions and 1.5 civilian. Faith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 26, 2003 Report Share Posted September 26, 2003 you took the words right out of my mouth!! Terry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 28, 2003 Report Share Posted September 28, 2003 > I have just one question before I answer this. How is your center funded? Is > it funded by a fee on telephone bill from those who live in your county? Good old student tuition, funelled to us in percentages from different departments line items....that and a few grant positions. Diane G. Burlington, VT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 29, 2003 Report Share Posted September 29, 2003 squad....we're still in the > negotiation phase of the Change of Working Conditions complaint that we're > ready to file......my favorite quote of all this so far " Its only > dispatching....I can't see what the difference possibly could be " > > (arhghhhhhhh) > > Diane G > Burlington, VT ******************************************************************** Ask them to switch jobs with you for a week or month. Iowa State Patrol Communications, Cedar Rapids Werling NØXZY Anamosa, IA scott@... My 2002 Olympic Pics http://www.photoisland.com login: Ridgeroader password: blah My Family Genealogy at http://www.n-connect.net/scott/index.htm Bus station is where the buses stop. Train station is where the trains stop. At my desk, there's a workstation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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