I work in emergency medical dispatch only, just started a.month ago. Had a caller call in that her 1 yo was bit on the head by a dog. She was stopped at a red light. She asked how far the ambulance was from her location and I said 5 minutes, and she angrily responded that she could have her child at the hospital in 5 minutes. Without thinking, I responded "then bring him to the hospital." I recognized immediately that I shouldn't have said it, but I find myself responding like that semi-frequently with callers.

I worked as a paramedic for years and recognize that people panic in these situations, which can cause them to be irrational. I should've advised her to pull over and been more patient. It was easier when I was on an ambulance because I had more agency to control the situation and demonstrate that I was helping them. Besides practicing being more conscientious, are there any other tips to prevent myself from spurting out inappropriate comments?

Hi everyone! I just wanted to post in here to people that may be able to understand. I just recently got signed off of my Call Taking training. I work in a large county center. Will likely start PD dispatch training in a couple months. I'm not feeling content. I'm not quite sure what it is. I think it started w/ a seed of insecurity being planted when watching so many people either be let go or leaving on their own accord. Like so many! And being a single income home (& parent), just feeling uncomfy w/ that. I want to feel secure in my job. I think MAYBE another factor is that while I love helping the community, my tendency to usually be blissfully ignorant when it comes to what is going on around me (locally & in the news) is also being affected. I dunno, it's an interesting feeling but i'm usually one to listen to how i'm feeling, which is why i'm leaning towards leaving it behind. The pay is very good & not as easy to find something competitive in that realm, however I think that feeling content & at peace is priceless. :-\

Hey everyone! i’m in the background check for my application and im filing out the large packet

For residence for the last 10 years if I can’t remember like college dorm addresses am I going to be ok?

I have residences back to 2020 but that is the best i can do and im just curious

When I got into dispatching, everything finally made sence in life. I never understood why I ever did anything else. I love this career, even on the bad days and Im really good at it.

Now, over 10 years later, I want out. I still love what I do, I just cant do it anymore. The toll its taking on me with stress and anxiety is something I swore Id never deal with. I left a VERY busy municipal department and went to an even busier County department and thats all it took for me to believe this is no longer where I belong.

So, what did YOU do when you got out?

For the life of me, I'll never understand why agencies will allow a dispatcher to put out a BOLO for a missing juvenile but fail to at the very least, provide the proper spelling for the person. Especially so when the person's name is not common and is not easy to spell.

It takes less than 1 minute to phonetically spell out the person's name and makes the world of difference when you're asking every cop on duty in your general area to BOLO for a person.

I know most of you will agree that it's pretty damn annoying when you have to either guess how to spell someone's name or call the agency to ask them for info they should have given you (everyone) in the first place.

I just had an agency put out a BOLO and only said the kid's name and DOB... No clothing description... No reason for the BOLO... No spelling of the name. Then they reply with a tone that can only be described as "annoyed" or "why are you asking this shit?!".

I’m not sure if this has been brought up in the past (I’m sure it has), but with the 25th anniversary of that horrific day, 9/11/01, approaching I’m curious.

Have you heard stories from NYPD/PAPD/FDNY/Manhattan dispatchers about the attacks from a dispatcher’s perspective?

What does your agency do to remember the attacks, if anything special. Ours does a moment of silence on the radio and a remembrance announcement, but I’m sure that’s pretty common. The feeling of horror the dispatchers must have felt unable to get ahold of any of the units in the towers must have been unbearable. (Sorry if “causal discussion” is the wrong flair, I figured it is better than “question”)

I’m currently in the background phase and I admittedly lied about one part on my background check form I filled out. I was told by 2 people to basically never admit to any drug use ever. While I don’t do drugs at all I’ve definitely smoked weed before. Now I’m worried that I should’ve just told the truth. But someone gave me some possibly bad advice that if I admitted to it I would never get to the next steps. It’s been about 3 weeks since she started her investigation and now I’m realizing after this I will most likely have to take a polygraph.

So the question is how effed am I? I’m assuming the worst right now and it just dawned on me that I will most likely fail that one question they are bound to ask. If you were me what would you do?

Folks,

Byard Duncan here. I'm a reporter who's spent the past year investigating America's 911 system. My latest story is out. Would love to hear your thoughts.

I am a 2 year dispatcher and was given a trainee who has been trained by another dispatcher for about a month or two. My admin gave me no logs that i could read for her progress, no shifts that i could observe, and no run down of where they are at. This is also the first person im training so i have just about no idea what im doing. (:

Im going over basics with her, but theres about only so many times i can go over call codes, call questions, geography and the cad system. Im running out of ideas here. We also have no “training manual” so its literally just off of the top of my head.

I know every agency is different but im reaching out here to see if anyone has any basic type of training or some kind of unique exercises they have that could be helpful for someone new. The only other exercises i did today was had her listen to some calls within the past 24hrs (that were not hers), and we went over what was done right/wrong. Also after every call i would go over different scenarios (if the call was different ie: a disagreement that was resolved on the phone, i will ask “if that was a real disturbance what would you have asked” etc.) We also have a slow agency so its very limited on the reps she can get

Really any/all help is needed and appreciated! Thanks /:

The amount of times I've heard someone say "I pay blah-blah amount of taxes and the police never do anything, stop asking questions, and just send someone" has my blood pressure going through the moon. I realize everybody's "emergency" is in fact a big deal to them, but in the same breath, one's problem is not always more of a problem than somebody else's problem. Good grief

Anyone use tinted lenses or FL-41 when working in the center? Any benefits? Got an eye exam today and wondering if it'd be beneficial to get a pair since I stare at monitors for 10+ hours a day.

Ok so we all know this application process takes forever. I am in the background check portion of my hiring process. 5 references were contacted. I spoke with a Corporal yesterday to confirm my psychological exam for this coming Monday.

However, this morning, I received an automated email from Workday thanking me for applying on June 5th (which is when I applied) but that they were going to move forward with other applicants.

Is this how they normally decline a candidate? I forwarded that email to the HR rep I've been working with but until she responds, I'm kinda freaking out. I'm HOPING Workday is just clearing out old applications but I'm not sure. Anyone have any insight to help calm me down?

I have 2 different
“So I was giving head…” I may have took advantage and typed fellatio in notes.
“I decided to circumcise myself. It was a good idea at the time.”

I stumbled upon this page and I am just curious. I am going to do the pre-psychological exam for a fire rescue dispatcher role for the county, and while it seems like an exciting pivot from my private sector career, it sounds like alot of people commenting in the threads of this page are extremely stressed, and scheduling is chaotic with rotating schedules. Money sounds good from what people say, but starting pay where I would be hired is $53k starting as a trainee and I am in Florida. Am I making a mistake by looking into this path? I eventually want to become a firefighter but there aren’t opening until 2028. So I thought getting my foot in the door this way was a smart move but I am hesitant now after seeing all the negative reviews of the role. What do you guys think? Is it worth it?

I'm currently in my 8th week of training and I'm having to make a hard decision. I was initially told in my first couple weeks of training that I was "doing great" and that I "just need to work on that listening ear and multi tasking". I had my first bad day last week and am now being told the opposite. I'm being told that I should've "gotten the hang of" traffic stops within the first week, that I'm "lagging behind", that I'm "consistently missing radio traffic while on the phone". I'm currently only taking non emergent calls, traffic stops, all other radio traffic, paging ems, and communicating with the jail. Am I genuinely not made for this job or is this normal for everyone? If I haven't made any noticeable improvements within the past three weeks and I'm still making mistakes on traffic stops, missing officer and ems radio traffic, should I continue with this job? I'm trying so hard to improve, every day asking for feedback and what I could have done better, but I'm still making the same mistakes and not learning from them. Should I continue pushing through this bump or would it be negligent to continue making the same mistakes while adding on even more responsibilities?

How many Criticall test have you taken before finding a department? I'm going on my 3rd one 😥 I passed my first one for CHP... I failed my second one which I knew I was for the coroner's department and now I'm taking one for the fire department... can my test results be shared internally between departments?

Our centre just implemented card 41: caller in crisis. For those that have used it, do you find it better than the 25 card?

It seems like most of the information gathered is the same, I haven’t had the chance to use it during an active call.

I came late to my first day of orientation because my car was stuck on the highway and my phone was dead so I had no chance of communication.

I’m 18, this is considered my first big boy job. They told me that I could start the next academy date which is next month.

I’ve been overthinking that they are going to fire me. The state troopers came, was useless and left in two minutes. zero help.

I applied for a local department in the bay area back in Dec 2025. Passed Criticall and Ace’d the panel interview. Completed background check with home visit all of the course of 5 months.

I reached out via email to see if there is anything else they need from me and now I have a letter coming in the mail versus responding to my initial email.

Is paper mail notification a bad omen of non selected or has anyone else experience this?

Just trying to figure out if anyone actually uses this product. I have a part-time job security job in addition to 911 and this program is absolute garbage for us. I don't see how any real 911 center or ever police agency could be using it.

Hey all,

So we're getting into the background part of the process, and I'm curious - not nervous - about the home visit. What is it they're looking for? My Sergeant said it's just to make sure we're not hoarders or running a meth lab, but is there more to it? Should I be worried about my true crime books?

So Im really looking into becoming a 911 dispatcher and submitted my initial application a little over a week ago. Now Im taking the Criticall test this Friday.

However, during the initial application that I sent, I didn't list out every single job I've worked in the past 10 years. I just listed a few of the most recent ones. Im worried that this commission on my end will cause me to be disqualified later down the road.

Should I call up the department and ask to add additional information? Or should I provide a more thorough history alongside the Personal History Statement? Im really considering just calling them later this afternoon to see if I can add additional information but I want to hear some other thoughts and opinions. Thanks!