- 7 months ago
- #iam911
Ricardo Martinez II spent more than a decade as a 911 dispatcher, handling thousands of emergencies as US 911 centers face a nationwide staffing and funding crisis.
Across the country, emergency call centers are short-staffed, underfunded, and losing dispatchers faster than they can replace them. A 2023 survey found that one in four 911 positions nationwide is vacant, and 36% of centers reported having fewer positions filled in 2022 than in 2019.
Martinez explains to Business Insider how dispatchers decide who gets help first for police, ambulance, and fire services, why they sometimes have to drop one call to save another, and the "caller hacks" that can literally save your life. He also reveals how burnout, low pay, and constant emotional strain are pushing America's "first first responders" to the brink.
Martinez now works for a 911 solutions company that manages emergency call networking and trains dispatchers on multiple platforms. He also hosts the "Within the Trenches" podcast and leads the #IAm911 movement, amplifying dispatcher stories and advocating for greater recognition of their work.
For more:
Ricardo's podcast: https://www.withinthetrenches.net/podcast
#IAM911 Movement: https://www.withinthetrenches.net/iam911-movement
If you or someone you know is dealing with substance misuse or mental illness, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Helpline (1-800-662-4357) for 24/7, free, confidential treatment referral and information.
Across the country, emergency call centers are short-staffed, underfunded, and losing dispatchers faster than they can replace them. A 2023 survey found that one in four 911 positions nationwide is vacant, and 36% of centers reported having fewer positions filled in 2022 than in 2019.
Martinez explains to Business Insider how dispatchers decide who gets help first for police, ambulance, and fire services, why they sometimes have to drop one call to save another, and the "caller hacks" that can literally save your life. He also reveals how burnout, low pay, and constant emotional strain are pushing America's "first first responders" to the brink.
Martinez now works for a 911 solutions company that manages emergency call networking and trains dispatchers on multiple platforms. He also hosts the "Within the Trenches" podcast and leads the #IAm911 movement, amplifying dispatcher stories and advocating for greater recognition of their work.
For more:
Ricardo's podcast: https://www.withinthetrenches.net/podcast
#IAM911 Movement: https://www.withinthetrenches.net/iam911-movement
If you or someone you know is dealing with substance misuse or mental illness, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Helpline (1-800-662-4357) for 24/7, free, confidential treatment referral and information.
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TechTranscript
00:00My name is Ricardo Martinez II.
00:02I spent 13 years as a 911 dispatcher.
00:05This is everything that I'm authorized to tell you.
00:08You see what you see on TV and you think,
00:11well, that's what it's going to be.
00:13But that first time you end up hearing a parent scream
00:16because their child isn't breathing, that is when it's real.
00:20And people just are not cut out for it.
00:23When there are multiple emergencies that are coming in,
00:25we have to start triaging these calls.
00:28And you are the one who has to decide which one is the highest priority
00:32and lowest priority even when all of them seem like the highest priority.
00:41What a 911 dispatcher actually does is they are taking calls from everyone
00:47when they are living their worst nightmare.
00:50People are not calling in when they're having the best day possible.
00:55To this day, some of the sounds that stick with me are those that I heard from these phone calls that I took.
01:02A call that I can remember taking was a girl who had just broken up with her boyfriend.
01:10And he kind of started stalking her.
01:14And she calls late at night and she says,
01:17he's out here and I've seen him walking around the house.
01:20I need help.
01:22So I get all the information that I need to get.
01:25And she tells me that she's in the basement.
01:28She's hiding in the basement right now from him.
01:31I'm trying to keep her calm.
01:33But at the same time, in the back of my mind, I'm freaking out there with her
01:37because I'm thinking, please don't let this person break into the house.
01:41Please help officers get there in time to get to her and to get this guy out of there.
01:48And as she's talking, and I can hear it right now and I can feel the hair in the back of my neck standing a little bit.
01:55The doorbell.
01:57He hits the doorbell.
01:59And it was so loud in my headset that I remember it rattled my ear a little bit.
02:06And she goes, yeah, he's hitting the doorbell.
02:09And she goes, he's out there, he's out there.
02:12And as I'm typing all of this in, it goes off again.
02:17Officers end up getting there on scene and the guy runs.
02:21They end up getting him and they take him in.
02:24Now, if I'm at a hardware store or something and people are hitting doorbells,
02:30I've heard it a couple of times and I have stopped.
02:33And I think, oh, yep, that was from that call.
02:36I've had phone calls before where a mom is calling in hysterical and they have a child that is choking.
02:48I'm trying to get the information from her, get the address.
02:51Hopefully, the information is coming from a landline where it's on the screen and I can start dispatching right away.
02:57All I could hear was slapping on the back.
03:01And I have to tell the mom, do not slap your child on the back.
03:06I will help you with the Heimlich.
03:08Because if you're hitting them on the back, it's possible it's going to end up getting stuck even further.
03:14I've got the mom yelling at me, do you want me to let my child just choke and die?
03:19And I'm telling her, no, no, no, no, I've already got help heading out your way.
03:24Some of the go-to phrases I think that we try to stay away from, even in a general argument with someone,
03:30you don't always want to tell them, calm down.
03:32Just calm down.
03:33Like, I need you to calm down.
03:35Because what's going to happen?
03:37They might go off on you or, you know, it might escalate.
03:40I remember telling people, I just need you to try to remain as calm as possible so that we can get people going.
03:47And I think though, if your voice is just calm, it's like you're throwing that out there to that person already.
03:55It doesn't always work, right?
03:57But when you're talking to someone and you're a little more calm in general, that person is going to feel comfortable to begin with.
04:04In the back of my head, I'm freaking out just like you are because I'm human too.
04:09You won't hear that.
04:10You will just hear the even tone.
04:13No matter how ridiculous it might seem to you that I'm asking tons of questions, it's to keep you safe and it's to get help out to you as fast as possible.
04:23You know, there are a lot of times people are calling and they are hysterical.
04:28When you are talking to them, it's not going to matter if you raise your voice because they're not going to hear you.
04:36You're basically like white noise.
04:38If you bring your voice down to a whisper, it tricks the caller almost where they will end up thinking, is anyone even there?
04:46And when they stop and they ask, that's when you jump in.
04:51That is when you start asking those questions.
04:53There are some phone calls that come in, especially on social media, and this is something that has come up for a few years now, where people will end up posting out there,
05:05hey, if you call 911 and you tell them that you want to order a pizza, they know right away that something is going on, you need help, it's a protocol that they use.
05:19And I'm just here to tell you that's not true.
05:23Now what I can say, though, is that we are trained to listen for whatever it is that's going on that might sound off.
05:31So if you call me and you're asking me to order a pizza, I'm going to tell you, you've reached 911, this is 911.
05:41And if they continue to say, yeah, you know, I want pepperoni and mushroom or however they say it, then I know, hey, this doesn't sound right.
05:50Maybe something is going on.
05:51So now we switch it to yes or no questions.
05:53Are you able to speak right now?
05:55No.
05:56Is there someone there with you?
05:58Yes.
05:59Are you in any danger?
06:01Yes.
06:02So we start going through those questions, but it happens that fast.
06:06So the whole pizza thing, it's not something that we practice at all.
06:11It's never been an actual protocol.
06:13However, because it's been around social media so much, I think people are thinking about it more.
06:19When a phone call comes in and I'm asking, where's your emergency?
06:24And no one is answering.
06:25All I hear is breathing.
06:27That is what we call an open line.
06:29Now we need to figure out what it is that's going on.
06:32This is when our dispatch ear kicks in.
06:35Every little thing that is going on within the environment of where that caller is, I am listening to and I am typing everything in.
06:45Now, let's say I have an address.
06:48I have a location.
06:50I'm able to put out, I've got an open line unknown situation that is going on.
06:56I'm typing this in on my side.
06:59The main radio dispatcher for law enforcement is watching in real time what I am typing in and they are toning out for officers.
07:08So when I say toning out, what I mean is there are high priority calls that we consider a tone out.
07:15And there will be a do-do-do-do-do-do-do, a tone that will go over that gets the attention of everyone in the county who is listening.
07:23So that they know that a high priority call is coming in.
07:26If they are close enough, they can go to it.
07:29Some of those mistakes that callers make when they are calling in that can slow down responses, help going out towards them, is when they go off on different adventures.
07:42And what I mean by that is the story.
07:45So when someone is calling in, we need that information.
07:48We need the gist.
07:49We need to know exactly what it is that is going on.
07:52There are some times when callers end up saying, well, so you know, a month ago and start the whole timeline of what is going on.
08:01And we're typing this and there have been moments where even myself, I've had to say, I need what's going on right now at this moment.
08:08You can tell me the rest of the stuff as we're waiting for officers to go there, but I need to know the main reason for why you're calling.
08:16And people might see that or hear that as me being rude, but I'm trying to get you help as fast as possible.
08:24A lot of times, 911 dispatchers end up becoming almost a chameleon.
08:34You know, you become a negotiator.
08:36You become a therapist.
08:37You are a parent.
08:39You know, you're all of these different aspects of life you end up becoming while doing this job.
08:46I remember some calls, but one specifically where we had a negotiator coming in, barricaded gunman, but this person had built this rapport, this trust with the 911 dispatcher who was taking the call.
09:03And they didn't want to speak to anyone else but that person.
09:07They didn't want to get on with the negotiator.
09:10The negotiator was on the other line listening and then was feeding different things to the dispatch so the dispatch could tell that person what was going on, getting other information or whichever.
09:27You see things in the news and you only know part of the story.
09:32But when you get in there, some of those calls that come in, you kind of see the darker part of humanity.
09:41And I can't take credit for this, but it's something that I mention a lot is you think about Scooby Doo growing up and you're watching as a kid and you've got this group who are looking for this monster.
09:56But at the end, what those monsters all end up being are human.
10:01And sometimes when you're taking these calls, it makes that a reality because monsters are real and they're human.
10:09One of the misconceptions that people have about dispatch is that, or 911 dispatch rather, is that we're simply answering phone calls and sending out help.
10:20But they don't realize when you're listening to these phone calls how they stay with you and how they can impact you as well.
10:28Everything is priority one when these calls are coming in. We need to get them help.
10:32A call that I took once where a lady was saying that someone was breaking into their home.
10:37Everything sounded real. And, of course, immediately we're toning people out, sending them out priority one because there's people breaking into this woman's house.
10:49Now, as I'm going through this, the story starts to change a little bit because the person ends up saying that there are two guys that are breaking into our house using chainsaws and they're coming from the floor.
11:00And we all have the same CAD system and CAD, C-A-D, is computer-aided dispatch. This is where we're typing in all of these complaints that are coming in.
11:11And people can see them on their screens as well. They can click into them. They can read them. And maybe it's a call that they've taken before as well.
11:21And they will send a message over and it'll pop up on my screen and it'll say, hey, I took a call from that person as well.
11:28Make sure you check this narrative in what we call our in-house computer, which is a database that has information on past calls and maybe some notes that have been added.
11:39The sergeant who had gone out there before goes on the radio and says, Central, that person is starting to go through dementia. I will head out there as well.
11:49And it turned out that there was no one breaking into the home. Nothing was going on. So when calls are coming in, we can also just simply click into that complaint, read what is going on, and everyone in the room knows exactly what is going on in pretty much real time.
12:09When there are multiple emergencies that are coming in, we have to start triaging these calls. And really, it's the highest priority to the lowest priority. But this happens in split seconds in a kind of a short scenario.
12:27I'm on phones. I'm the only one on phones. It's shift change. It's always busy during shift change, but especially because people are coming home from work. So everyone is on the roads.
12:38And I take a phone call for a PI accident or a personal injury accident. This is on the highway. We've got help that's going out there already. And I'm just going through the calls.
12:49Another call comes in, a verbal domestic call. They're separated, nothing physical. I've got all of their information. We have someone heading out there as well. And for a verbal domestic, they're toned out.
13:01So they're going lights and sirens to get to this. Because again, anything can happen. Another call is coming in. And because I'm the only one on the phones and who can get that phone call, I have a moment to put them on hold.
13:13And there are times where I would go to put someone on hold and I would get yelled at. And I don't blame them because you're calling 911. You have an emergency. Why are you going to put me on hold?
13:28But here's the other thing. And it might sound rude, but it's because there are tons of emergencies that are coming in at that same time. And we might be the only person.
13:37And when I pick up this other one, this one is a medical. And I have to do CPR. So now I'm doing CPR instructions. And I'm basically there telling them, keep going, keep going.
13:46Kind of timing them out to make sure that they're doing it the way they're supposed to be doing it. Help is already going out there. They're almost there.
13:53So there are three calls now that are going on. I put them on hold so that I can check on that domestic because the officers are going out. And when I answer that domestic to see if anything has changed, now there's weapons involved.
14:07So the question is, who do you stay with? Who do you go to? Do you stay with the domestic where there's now weapons involved and officers are heading that way and you need to update them because this is in progress?
14:20Or do you go back to the CPR call where you're trying to help save a person's life? People might say different, but for myself, I go to the domestic because I want to keep my officers safe as they're going out there because there's weapons involved.
14:35I'm also trying to keep them separated and get whoever's on the phone with me to a safe space. And this is where people might think, well, why wouldn't you stay with the CPR one?
14:45They're doing textbook CPR. EMS has now just arrived. So you've got this one that's left and you're going through it. And hopefully officers get out there and everything ends up being completely fine.
14:59But again, anything happens in 911. But that's just a scenario there where you are thinking on your feet. Now with medical, sometimes if I'm the only one who is on phones, I might have to put you on hold for just a moment so that I can tone out EMS and let them know what's going on.
15:20I might mute my microphone. And the reason for this as well is because you're going through this medical situation. And if you hear me toning this out and repeating what it is that is going on, it might elevate you even more that you start kind of freaking out even more.
15:38Recently, a lot of dispatch centers have been hit with short staffing. Nationwide, one in four seats in 911 centers are left vacant. What makes people most caught up for this job is a lot of it has to do with with multitasking, thinking on your feet.
16:01When I first started, my trainer told me that you need three things. Number one is you need thick skin. Number two, you need common sense. And number three, and this is probably the most important one and one that has always stuck with me, is that you need to be human.
16:20Even folks that have no experience at all with public safety, you can tell that there's something in their background that they just have that knack for service and wanting to help others.
16:35And at the time, all I had was retail management under my belt. And just one day, my mom comes up to me and she says, you know, the chief of police said that they're hiring dispatchers. You should go try it.
16:49And I said, mom, I don't have any experience with 911. I have no idea what they do. I said, I know what I see on TV. I said, you remember my favorite show was Rescue 911 with William Shatner. I said, that's all I know. And she goes, well, you should try.
17:04I went and I, I filled out my application back in 2001. I am in my house and my grandmother comes in and starts yelling at me.
17:15And it was the chief of police. And he goes, I wanted to see if you still wanted the job.
17:22I said, I haven't heard from you guys in two months. And he goes, you know what? The background process is really long. Do you want the job?
17:28And I said, yes, I do want the job. Found out I got the job and I went in that, that night. And the trainer shows me everything there. He takes a 911 call. I'm watching him.
17:41I've never been on the side before. So I am in tune to what he, I'm dialed in to what he's doing. And when he's done, I kind of applause, you know, I applauded him. And he goes, oh, thanks. And he goes, well, you're next.
17:54So now I'm sitting there waiting for this first call to come in. And I am sweating because I'm freaking out. I have no idea what's going to be coming in. And the phone rings and I answer, Frostproof 911, where's your emergency?
18:10And it was a butt dial. Thank the Lord. It was a butt dial. The lady ends up saying, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to call. And I say to her, no, you're okay. I look at my trainer and he goes, you got the first one down.
18:25About a week or so later, I did have a 40 hour beginners dispatch course. When I ended up leaving Florida, going back home to Southwest Michigan to finish off my career there. Now the training is different.
18:41And there's four different phases. The first phase is phones. The second phase, we end up doing a combination of radios and then backup phones and radios.
18:51Same goes into, you know, phase three. So there's all of these different phases that you're going through, but you're learning in that phase one, all of the protocols, all of the policies, all of the codes, as well as geography.
19:06And then you go into phones and you're taking phones, but you start out with non-emergency calls. So a lot of alarm calls, whenever alarm calls would come in and I'm the new one, I'm in training.
19:17They'd say, Ricardo, this calls for you. It's an alarm call. You got this. And they listen on the other side and they're critiquing it, scoring us on how well that we are doing with those non-emergency calls.
19:30But here's the thing. Sometimes in those non-emergency calls, emergencies come in as well. So now you're jumping into this. And depending on the emergency that's going on, your trainer might actually jump in for you and take it because you haven't done it yet.
19:48But sometimes you just go and you just do it because you're the one who's on the call.
19:53When I switched from the one center to the other, my training was only three to four months. And that's because I had about four years of experience already going into it.
20:03But when you switch from being only one person to now a team, it's not as easy because now you also have the dynamic of working with the team and trying to understand how everyone works together so that you can work like a well-oiled machine.
20:19Phase four is the shadow phase. So for this training that I've been going through this whole time, we are connected. My trainer is next to me.
20:29And some dispatch centers still have this. We called it the umbilical cord, which basically is two headsets that are plugged in and you've got this long cord that is connecting so that you can listen in.
20:42But when you go into phase four, though, now my trainer will be on the other side of the room. And if I need them, then I call for them.
20:50Generally, other certifications that we have as 911 professionals is the EMD certification. It is emergency medical dispatch. So you can't take medical calls unless you have that certification so that you can be able to go through and figure out what it is that is going on and what response to get out there.
21:10We do have to take classes for CPR and they end up playing staying alive, the song staying alive because it's the same rhythm of what you need for compressions. Another one bites the dust also is the same rhythm for compressions for CPR.
21:32But we definitely have to have those certifications in order to be able to take the medical calls.
21:39But while I'm on the phones, I'm not just taking a 911 call. I'm also taking non-emergency calls, answering the radio for fire and for EMS, and I'm typing everything in.
21:55So when the phone rings, answer the phone, 911, where is your emergency? Because we need to know that location. I mean, that's the one thing that we need to hammer to people. Location, location, location.
22:07Now, here's another thing. Let's say a child calls. They're at home and their parent is, they find them in the living room laying on their back and they have no idea what's going on.
22:20They call 911, but they don't know their address. So now we have to think on our feet. Is there a piece of mail there? Pick that up because the address is on the envelope.
22:30Or, you know, are you able to easily see the numbers on your house? You know, there are different ways that we can get the location, but especially for child callers.
22:39And it's not just child callers, but even adults, they don't know where they are. They can give us landmarks. Landmarks is probably one of the best things.
22:47We tell people, look around you. What do you see? Because a lot of times there might be dispatchers that are working that know that area.
22:55During an emergency, for a caller to get help as quick as possible, please answer the questions that we are asking you.
23:06The amount of questions that I ask does not delay the time, the response that someone is getting out there to you.
23:14Because as soon as you call, as soon as I have that location, and I know just even a little bit of what's going on, I'm typing into my system.
23:23The other person who's on radios is seeing it, and they're already sending it out. We already have people going out there.
23:31I buried my calls. I thought that I was leaving those on the shelf at work, and they didn't come home with me, but that was a lie.
23:46I was just lying to myself. There's a call that I took that really pushed me into starting to talk about these things,
23:54sharing stories in the therapeutic spot that hits with these stories that we're able to share when we're ready.
24:00It was 2007, November. My grandmother was really sick, and she was in hospice care.
24:07I was working in dispatch. All of my family were at my aunt's house where my grandmother was.
24:12It's the middle of the night. It's about 3.30 in the morning, and my partner on the other side of the room ends up getting up, and she goes,
24:21Hey, Ricky, is it okay if I go to the break room? And I said, Of course. There's nothing going on anyway, which is like tempting fate,
24:30because you put it out there in the universe, something is going to happen.
24:33She goes into the break room, and no later did the door shut, but the phone rings.
24:39Now, I never hesitate to pick up the phone, but I hesitated this time, hair in the back of my neck standing up,
24:46and I waited for about half a ring, because that old phone system that we had, you had to wait half a ring for that information to pop up.
24:55And the information pops up, and I recognized the cell phone, and it's my mom's cell phone number.
25:01All I could think was, What are the odds that I'm going to be the one to take this call right now?
25:08So I pick up.
25:10911, where is your emergency?
25:12And it's my cousin.
25:14And she says, Richie?
25:17And I said, Yeah.
25:19And she goes, Grandma just died.
25:22I couldn't believe it when I was leaving there that I was the one to take the call when my grandmother passed.
25:29Now, her and I were really close, but it was that call that ended up pushing me to think, You know what?
25:38I need to figure out me.
25:39I need to figure out what's going on with myself, because as much as I love this profession and this job that I do in helping people in those rewarding moments,
25:48this is killing me on the inside.
25:51So I started finally opening up and sharing some of the stuff that was going on.
25:57Because in any profession, but especially public safety, there's that stigma with mental health, where if you start asking for help,
26:06where you start talking about certain things, your calls or whichever.
26:10For me, it was a fear that the people that I worked with would think, Well, Ricardo can't hack it anymore.
26:16He can no longer do this job.
26:18There's this saying of the most important person you will never see.
26:22But now, people are sharing.
26:24People are talking about it.
26:25And from that time on, all of these resources started coming out.
26:29There are critical incident stress management teams.
26:32There are peer support teams that dispatch centers have, where if someone has taken a call and they need help, they reach out to that person.
26:40Some other dispatch centers, they have poker chips and they have the logo of their dispatch center on it or whichever.
26:46But what they do with that poker chip is they give it to whoever the peer support person is.
26:52They don't say it out loud. It's not in an email.
26:55They're basically giving them this poker chip to say, Hey, I need to talk to somebody.
27:05There are a lot of hard things, a lot of chaos.
27:09But the other side of it as well is that rewarding piece, taking calls from someone who is giving birth, hearing that baby be born and the crying.
27:22Those are amazing moments.
27:24Those are moments to definitely hang on to, being able to help save a life.
27:28One of the most important moments I feel for me was early on, it was around 2006, and I kind of needed a win.
27:36I've been taking hard call after hard call after hard call.
27:40And one day I take this call from a mom and she's screaming, she's hysterical.
27:46Her kids were all sledding down this hill.
27:49It's wintertime.
27:50Her youngest daughter, she ended up sledding onto the pond that they had and it was thin ice.
27:57And she couldn't get to her.
27:59So I'm getting everyone out.
28:01We've got help rushing to her.
28:03And I'm on the phone with her.
28:05Let me know if anything happens.
28:07If she falls through, let me know, let me know.
28:09Everyone gets there.
28:11And we get off the phone and I'm at the edge of my seat.
28:17And I'm listening to the radio.
28:20And I'm praying.
28:23And all I want to hear is for the fire department to come over the radio and say, we got her.
28:34I'm like, please, please, please get her.
28:38Please get her.
28:39And finally, they come over the radio and they say, we got her.
28:44I can exhale.
28:46I've been holding my breath the whole time.
28:49So we go through it.
28:50I was like, oh, a win.
28:52I saved her.
28:53So glad.
28:54One of the things that dispatchers deal with is the fact that we don't always get closure
29:01from these calls.
29:02We don't always know what it is that goes on in the end.
29:06And a little bit after that, my supervisor at the time, she would always get the newspaper
29:13and read whatever was on there, right?
29:16And she ends up yelling out to all of us in the room, who took this call?
29:23And she goes, the family took out an ad.
29:28And they're thanking everyone who is involved in saving their daughter.
29:33Do you want it?
29:34She goes, I'll cut it out for you.
29:36And I said, yeah.
29:37And she cut it out.
29:39And I still have it.
29:41A day in a life for a 911 dispatcher can vary depending on the center that you're at,
29:52whether you're working eight-hour days or 12-hour days.
29:55So I worked midnight shifts.
29:57I worked 4.30 p.m. to 4.30 a.m.
30:01I've dealt with short staffing as well when I was in dispatch.
30:04There are three of us there.
30:06We also have an overtime list, a four-sin list.
30:11So if I called down the list and nobody answers, it ends up getting split between the three of us.
30:17So now that 12-hour shift turns into a 16-hour shift.
30:22I would volunteer.
30:25Because if you volunteer for the time, you go to the bottom of the list, which is always good.
30:31I would work it all the way through.
30:32So I would be there, just in this example, 4.30 in the evening till 9 in the morning, working that whole time.
30:41People were burning out.
30:43From about 2016 until the present, everything is different.
30:47People are actually talking.
30:48They've got the resources.
30:50We're able to deal with that mental health and wellness.
30:53But it's being away from your family.
30:56It's the overtime.
30:58It's short staffing.
30:59And the types of calls that you end up taking that eventually take a toll on you.
31:04And you need to figure out how to work through it.
31:08When it comes to 9-1 professionals, you may or may not know this.
31:12But we are not classified as the protective class.
31:16We are not considered first responders.
31:19We're the first to answer the phone calls.
31:23And we're on that call until field responders get out there.
31:28We are under admin, administrative, and clerical workers, which I say this all the time.
31:34It's nothing against clerical workers or anything at all.
31:37There has been a reclassification that's been going through this fight since about 2016.
31:43And this is something that we continue to fight.
31:47Dispatch centers have always been known as PSAPs, public safety answering points.
31:52And we're also going over to ECCs, which is emergency communications centers.
31:59So in the beginning, it might have been seen as an admin or clerical type of position.
32:07But over the years, it completely evolved.
32:10With everything that's going on in the beginning, it was the 9-1-1 SAVES Act.
32:15And when this started out, I actually had the privilege and honor to be able to announce it
32:21over my social media platform in DC that this was going to be going out there for legislation.
32:27It was a bipartisan effort that was going through.
32:31It doesn't cost anything.
32:32It's just switching us to this class that we deserve to be in, part of this family now.
32:38It ultimately ended up not going through.
32:43But now with the Enhancing First Response Act of 2025, this has actually passed the Senate.
32:53And this is where we need everyone's help.
32:56We need for people to reach out to all of their representatives to say,
33:01now that this has passed the Senate, we need this to pass the House as well.
33:06And it's something that we're fighting for.
33:08We're going to continue to fight for.
33:10And that will give us that, not just that recognition,
33:15but it will also allow us to be able to finally get some sort of federal study
33:21when it comes to PTSD or anything else that affects us
33:25because we are affected by it, impacted by it just as much as those out in the field.
33:30When this happens, when this goes through, eventually there will be changes that happen.
33:37Hopefully with compensation.
33:39I have seen ranges where let's just say people are starting out at $24, $25 an hour.
33:46At one time I saw that a director of a dispatch center was only making $60,000 a year.
33:53And I thought, well, that's pretty interesting for them being the director of the entire agency.
34:00So if they're making $60,000 a year, how much are the dispatchers making?
34:06And how does that impact everything that is going on?
34:15When calls come in today, everything is different.
34:19We're going from landlines where you have all of the information right then and there.
34:24You confirm it, we send people out.
34:27But the majority of people now have cell phones.
34:30And when that information comes in, it is not always the best location.
34:35If it's a landline, what would pop up on the screen,
34:38you've got the name that's registered to that address, you've got the address,
34:43you've got a latitude and longitude,
34:45and you've got the phone number that's associated to it.
34:49So you've got all of this information that's right there.
34:51And sometimes you can just send it over to your computer where you're typing everything in.
34:57Now, if it's a cell phone, it's a little bit different.
35:01Because now you have kind of the location of where the tower is at.
35:06And you have a latin long, but it's not something that you would immediately go off of.
35:13Now, with newer technology, you have this information that's plotting,
35:17and it's plotting to an address.
35:19You know, it shows up on a map and it plots to an address,
35:22or at least the closest address of wherever the person is standing.
35:25So that will show up differently.
35:29And technology is good enough now that you can actually see where they are.
35:34If they're in a building, you might be able to see how high they are,
35:37potentially what floor.
35:39The technology from when I was in dispatch up until the end of 2013
35:44to the way it is now in 2025 has changed exponentially.
35:49You have AI now coming in to the 911 space.
35:53It's supposed to be basically a companion on your shoulder, so to speak,
35:58that assists you to make the job a lot faster and easier for what it is that is going on,
36:04to save even more seconds in what it is that you're doing.
36:07It could be language translations.
36:10You know, a lot of times some of the things that would happen,
36:12unless it was Spanish, my Spanish isn't the greatest.
36:15However, it was good enough that I was able to go through calls.
36:21My coworkers would have to go through a service.
36:24They would have to call through a service and do that connection where you've got someone
36:29who is translating in real time as you're doing it.
36:33And while you're talking, you have to talk to that interpreter as if that is the caller.
36:38And then we're going back and forth that way.
36:41And that in itself, if you think about it, is cutting down time a little bit.
36:46With technology the way it is now, you have different platforms that translate all of that stuff for you in real time.
36:55And you're just going back and forth.
36:57You also have text to 911, text from 911, where if someone calls in on a cell phone and they hang up,
37:05there are some dispatch centers out there that they will do a text from 911
37:10and establish the texting call that way before they actually call.
37:16Because a lot of times what we found is when you call back, people don't answer the phone, but they will answer a text.
37:22And sometimes there would be, you know, domestic situation that's going on.
37:26Dispatchers are able to get officers out there before the suspect or the other party even knows what is going on.
37:33The one thing I always tell people is that the human factor will always be important and it will always be needed.
37:41AI is there to accompany and assist, not to take over.
37:47I was training dispatchers on how to use these different platforms while still doing what I do now,
37:55which is the Within the Trenches podcast, and having dispatchers come on and share their stories.
38:01I've had dispatchers from all over the world come on to the podcast to just share their stories.
38:06You know, good calls, bad calls, any of those things.
38:10A lot of us felt as though we were alone.
38:12But when all of these stories came out, we realized there are more people out there that are dealing with the same things.
38:19And maybe someone has already dealt with it and now you can learn from them.
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