An Officer's "Thanks" to the Dispatchers

Written by Deputy Tim Lindsey of Lamar County Sheriff's Office, Mississippi


It takes a special someone to do the job you do.

To answer hundreds of calls a year with "911, where is your emergency?"
To ask all the right questions in order to get the needed help to someone in distress.
To patiently extract information from the kindergartner who calls and tearfully whispers, "My mommy won't wake up."
To cheerfully look up and relay phone numbers to the warrants officer when what you really want to say is, "Why don't you put a freakin' phone book in your car!"
To be partially responsible for the apprehension of the armed robber two counties over because you notified surrounding agencies of the vehicle description thirty minutes before the shift commander thought about it.

It takes a special someone to do the job you do.

To sleep on a cot in the records room, break room or in the hall while your agency deals with the latest man-made or natural disaster to come along.
To strain to hear till your eardrum cramps because some people absolutely refuse to hold the mike up to their mouth while they talk.
To carry on three different conversations; on the phone, on the radio, and in person, and keep them all straight.
To deal with the drunk at the drive-thru who called 911 because they put too much ketchup on his hamburger (yeah, he went to jail).
To talk the lady through the proper procedures when her daughter went in to labor two weeks early and gave birth in the bathroom.

It takes a special someone to do the job you do.

To take control, give directions and calm down the hysterical woman who accidentally shot her loving husband.
To take control, give directions and calm down the hysterical woman who intentionally shot her abusive husband.
To run 28's, 29's, Triple I's, "All Systems," and warrants checks and not pull out all your hair in the process.
To spend hours on end training the "newbie" in the skills you have acquired over the years.
To work with the "newbie" for weeks at a time when you knew from day one that they weren't going to be able to cut it.

It takes a special someone to do the job you do.

To answer your home phone in the middle of the night with "911, where's your emergency?"
To ride the emotional roller-coaster on the call where the three-year-old boy followed his dog into the woods wearing only his Scooby-Doo Underoos, got lost, got found three days later by search and rescue still alive, was carried through dense woods and thick underbrush over three miles to the command post, picked up by ambulance and then died fifteen minutes from the hospital.
To comfort, support and encourage each other when one of your guys is killed in the line of duty.
To stay awake and alert from 0330 hours to 0530 hours when things finally settle down on Saturday night.
To work under enough pressure and stress that a CEO in the private sector under the same would earn a million dollar bonus.

You are that special someone!! You are MY dispatcher and I thank God for you! If it should happen that I leave this life before you, I will stand face to face with God and thank Him for making people like you. I will then go stand by the gates and I will wait for you.