Emergency Communicators: Stay One Step Ahead in Preparedness

Taken from 9-1-1 Magazine.com 10/15/12
Written by Todd Haines, Adjunct Professor for the Fire Science and Emergency Management Degree program with Kaplan University.


Each day around the world emergencies happen in every community.  Most emergencies that happen will not make public headlines, but are nonetheless the most important call in someone's life.

From calming a caller and evaluating the type of emergency to securing the required information for emergency workers to respond to the proper location and communicating any tactical concerns, emergency telecommunicators' jobs encompass a wide range of skills that require extensive knowledge, preparation and education.  These men and women are there to reassure that help is on the way no matter they type and severity of the emergency.

Last month and anually each September, National Preparedness Month reminds us how important it is for emergency communicators to spearhead efforts to encourage individuals, families, businesses and communities to work together and take action to prepare for emergencies.  One of the most important things for emergency telecommunicators to do is to truly understand their jurisdiction and what critical infrastructure, symbolic targets, and other unique features exist and how the loss or disruption of those facilities or events will impact emergency responders and the community.  Understanding community threats prior to an emergency is critical to not just the success of the response, but also the life safety of the occupants and emergency responders.

What type of information is important to be proactive against, for example, considering the effects of a terrorist attack or other man-made disaster from an emergency communicator's standpoint?

Location, Location, Location
Work with local, state and federal law enforcement to develop a list of critical infrastructures and symbolic targets that can be easily accessible to the communications center.  Specific street addresses are usually not the primary interest to inflict harm but understanding the meaning behind the address is a key indicator for a terrorist.  Examples may include:

• Water treatment facilities
• Power Grids
• Large fixed hazardous material locations
• Transportation - subway, rail, highway, airport, shipping ports
• Schools
• Public and private large mass-gathering locations - outdoor venues, theaters, amusement parks
• Special Events and Festivals
• Global businesses
• Symbolic Targets - military facilities; religious facilities; local, state and federal government facilities; memorials; controversial businesses

Resources
Another critical item for emergency communicators is understanding the type and capability of resources that are available within the community.  These resources may be through emergency service organizations, public works and also private contractors or companies that have specialty equipment that responders may need during a crisis.

Suspicious Activities
An action where an emergency telecommunicator can be proactive in homeland security is monitoring and tracking reports of suspicious persons, packages and fire/security system alarms to a critical infrastructure facility or symbolic target.  For example, if emergency responders respond to a critical facility frequently in a short period of time it may be important to consider a modified response route and changing the staging location to another pre-determined location.  Observing how resources respond can be a part of the planning process for a terrorist attack or choosing secondary device locations for emergency responders.  Emergency communicators can be the consistent means for first responders by knowing the frequency and history of calls to a specified location and suggest modified response considerations.

Emergency telecommunicators play a critical part in the pre-incident planning process.  Through their knowledge, they can give responders exact locations of venues, resources allocation, type of calls and response history, emergency contact information and access to mutual aid automatic aid partners.  Emergency telecommunicators are truly the behind the scene heroes in today's ever changing threats to our communities.  We need to ensure that throughout the year communities are proactive in tapping into emergency communicators and the essential role they play in preparedness and a well-orchestrated emergency response.

From the Chair: Accepting the Inevitable: Schedules, Expectations & Things

Taken from 9-1-1 Magazine.com. 8/14/12
Written by Paul D. Bagley, published author of both fiction and non-fiction books, a retired police officer and emergency dispatcher.  He is the past president of New Hampshire Emergency Dispatchers Association.


One of the many problems facing emergency communications managers is that people hired as dispatchers soon forget all that was discussed during their employment interview.  In the vast majority of cases applicants are asked if they have any problem working nights, weekends, or holidays and invariably their reply is an enthusiastic and emphatic "no."  Within a few short weeks or months after they have soloed on the board their attitudes begin to morph away from all that enthusiasm toward a more jaundiced outlook on the vocation.  Suddenly all the glitter of the profession has turned into the drudgery of a job marked by "shift work," and their work product deteriorates in direct proportion to their rate of morph.

From the start dispatchers need to accept the inevitable fact that the job is twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.  True, they're not getting paid anything near what they're worth, and the meager prestige associated with dispatching probably wouldn't sustain a monk.  The fact that emergency dispatching is an essential and noble task doesn't put any more food on the table, make the mortgage payment, or buy the latest CD or video game for the kids.  Dispatchers aren't likely to receive any thank-you letters from a grateful public or commendations from their hierarchy, which is partially why their attitudes begin to deteriorate in the first place.  As dispatchers begin to spiral downward in performance they invariably fall into the trap of believing that working "normal" hours (Monday through Friday between 8:00 and 4:00) is the Holy Grail of the emergency telecommunications industry.  Brother, they couldn't be more wrong!

Dispatchers disheartened thusly need to comprehend that day-watch hours are the same hours worked by The Chief, and if they think they have their hands full coddling that introspective collection of troglodytes assigned to night shifts, wait until they get a load of what's waiting for them on day-watch.  The Chief can whine and cry with the best of them during those choice hours, and he does it with the added threat of dispatcher termination looming on the horizon throughout the entire shift.  As grumpy as The Chief may be when you awaken him by phone in the wee hours, it's nothing compared to how much attitude he can generate during "normal" hours, and there are also plenty of witless non dispatching minions around that help fuel his wrath.

There are good and bad points to every dispatching shift.  Working all night long when everyone else is asleep can be downright boring.  When something does happen, it's usually real.  The public, in most cases, isn't ambitious enough to get up at zero-dark-thirty to play practical jokes: if they call about something it's most likely a real problem.  The boredom associated with infrequent calls can lead to atrophy of dispatcher skills, which is where detailed procedural checklists and agency run-cards prove invaluable.  Since newbies are most-often relegated to the overnight hours, they're also often tasked with doing administrative "busy work" to keep them awake and alert.  Several thousand volts of caffeine apparently aren't considered sufficient by some supervisors and administrators.  Added to the busy work assigned to night shift is the likelihood that staffing will be the thinnest during those same hours.  This insures that when something "real" does occur, the dispatcher(s) on duty will be up to their proverbial armpits in alligators.  Another side effect of the midnight shift came from a colleague who complained that while working overnights he always felt like eating breakfast no matter what time of day or night.  Also, if he got off duty at 8:00 AM and had a beer with his Cheerios he wondered if he should start attending meetings.

Second shift, or evenings, can often be filled with an array of calls from a wide spectrum of sources that keep dispatchers active.  Like third shift, these hours can be absolutely dead activity-wise.  But more often this is the time when the public does all kinds of interesting things: they drive home from work, they cook dinner, they drink, and - of course - they fight with each other.  You can set your watch by them.  Activity tends to be higher and hopefully staffing is as well.  The biggest problem with working second shift is that it can be difficult on family life.  You find yourself sitting at the console when your kid is premiering in the school play or driving in the winning run for the little league team.  You often have to excuse yourself early from family gatherings in order to make it to work on time, and watching prime-time entertainment on television requires programming a DVR so you can play it back at a time to be determined later.

The worst of the evening shifts though are those that overlap evening and early-morning hours.  For many years I found myself working as a supervisor from 6:00 PM to 2:00 AM Tuesday through Saturday nights.  My wife was a school teacher during that time and we seldom saw one another except in the summer and on Sundays.  Another problem with that shift was that I'd arrive home late and couldn't go directly to sleep.  I'd be up for several hours watching mindless television in order to  help dissipate the adrenalin that had built up during my watch.  I would subsequently sleep away most of the morning hours, awaken around noon, eat breakfast at lunch time, lunch at dinner, and dinner whenever I could squeeze in a bite during my shift.  No wonder I grew to be the size of a Zeppelin!

Day shift is not the picnic that is envisioned when you're ensconced on any of the night shifts.  Anytime you need to do something outside of the dispatch center it means using up vacation or personal time in order to do it.  One of the great things about working nights is the ability to run errands and do chores at your leisure.  Being assigned Monday through Friday day shifts may seem like a reward, but it can be a consignment to something considerably less desirable when it comes to actually working those hours.  Aside from the high level of activity that coincides with the waking hours of the public, it's also when The Chief is lurking and when high-ranking department heads are viewing your every move in real-time.  Make the slightest deviation from established protocol and they're on you like ugly on an ape.

Weekends and holidays don't exist in dispatch.  While we recognize that for others - you know, real people? - there are designated days of rest that are regularly observed.  For dispatch these virtually come and go without notice.  Now and then some enterprising staffer will decorate the center with brightly-colored crepe paper, or maybe bake cookies.  But that's it!  While others enjoy the warmth of hearth and home, the embrace of their family during the yuletide, or relish a sumptuous Thanksgiving feast, someone always has to be minding the store back at dispatch.  Even though the shift work in itself can wear on dispatchers heavily, holidays seem to be the real sticking point.  Working holidays is truly a sacrifice in a profession that is already filled with an overabundance of sacrifice.  Low compensation, low public esteem (if any public recognition at all), and constantly reposing under the proverbial Sword of Damocles where you're damned if you do and damned if you don't is bad enough; but working holidays too?

Many agencies add high-test fuel to the mix by rotating shifts in an effort to provide some measure of fairness.  Some dispatchers love this; others can't stand it.  Some industry leaders claim that rotating shifts are more greatly detrimental toward the health and well-being of the individual working them, while others claim it promotes better Esprit de Corp, better understanding of the overall mission, and a fundamentally better employee who can handle any task placed before them regardless of the hours being worked.  Rotating shifts offer some measure of fairness among the staff in that the sharing of perceived good and bad shifts is equally distributed.  This, of course, presumes that the shifts will, in fact, be equally distributed - sort of like presumptions made about communism.  In centers where there is sufficient staff to provide ample coverage on all shifts while accommodating vacations, personal and sick time for everyone, the rotation of shifts can afford the individual dispatcher a locked-in schedule that can be projected years in advance.  This can allow personal planning options and opportunities to be present for those important family events like those little league games and school plays.  This presupposes that future administrators will adhere to what the current administration has established for scheduling and that staffing levels will always remain constant.  My experience has been that every new boss feels compelled to tinker with the schedule to either save money, promote some newly-hatched agenda on staff members who have to work the schedule, or simply to emphasize their power over others.  Whether changes made for any of these reasons are a good or bad thing can only be determined by those who ultimately have to work the schedule.  But one thing is for certain: it is change, and change of any kind for human beings requires adjustment.

Okay, we all know that dispatching is an around-the-clock operation that requires constant care and maintenance.  We know that sacrifice is involved, which is true of many professions in addition to ours.  Why, then, do so few dispatchers make it to retirement age?  Why is it that the expectation of a crappy schedule in the medical community, law enforcement, or the fire service is so much easier to tolerate for new people than it is with dispatch?  Why is the attrition rate for emergency telecommunicators so high?  Just as there is no such thing as a single-cause motor vehicle accident, there is no single reason for this state of affairs.  But among the many reasons our profession has become a revolving door for so many is the sheer number of sacrifices that have become associated with it.  Few people are truly prepared for that level of sacrifice regardless of how eager they may appear at their initial interview.  Accepting the inevitable is likely the only way for anyone to survive a career in The Chair.  That acceptance is often impossible to achieve when both youth and inexperience are involved; more importantly when full disclosure is not provided from the outset.  Maybe it falls to management to be more forthright during the interview and evaluation process.  Maybe it should be more difficult to become a dispatcher.

The biggest issue is, and always will be, compensation.  Since pay and benefits for dispatchers is universally low, it might seem a reasonable expectation to fledglings in the profession to see preferential schedules as an element of compensation.  It is essential from the get-go to provide aspirants with the fundamental understanding that schedule may well be the absolute worst aspect of the profession.  Technology becomes more daunting with each passing day and the list of tasks to be handled by dispatchers grows constantly (if only compensation grew at the same rate).  Schedule is the pits!

When new dispatchers were first starting out with me, I would recite to them a passage from the book Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace.  At one point in the story a high Roman official tells a group of slaves aboard a galley that they are all condemned men.  He ends his spiel by uttering, "We keep you alive to serve this ship...row ell and live."  I would suggest to new dispatchers that when it came to the schedule we are subject to it rather than the schedule being subject to us.  I would repeat, "Row well and live."  Ah, those good old days...when simple intimidation was all you needed to keep the oars in the water.

7 Traits of a Chaotic Workplace - And 7 Great Resources for Overcoming Them

Taken from 9-1-1.com Magazine, 2/22/12
Written by Sue Pivetta, president of Professional Pride, Inc. She has worked in emergency communications since 1989 as a college instructor, consultant, workshop leader and author.  She teaches adult learning through her book and workshop The Exceptional Trainer.


9-1-1 Communications Center teams work like well-oiled precision tools when a critical call comes in or the phones and radios are swamped on a full moon Friday night.  We all can agree Comm Centers rock when it comes to doing great teamwork on the phones and radios.  But we often hear that teamwork comes to an abrupt halt when it comes to getting along or to be a team off the phones and radio.  Performing extra data entry, agreeing on a new chair design, buying in on a new policy, implementing some in house training, getting past gossip, eliminating back stabbing or administration bashing.  Here are 7 Deadly Habits and 7 Useful Tips for more teamwork off the phones and radios and 7+ recommended eBooks for your professional library, independent learning, or In Service Training.

#1: Not Knowing Team Responsibilities 'Off' The Phones and Radio

"It's Not My Job"
It is very clear that the role of a Call Taker or Emergency Radio Dispatcher is to send with speed.  But does your staff agree on and accept their role when it comes to internal communications, enforcing procedures for the team, stress management, support, and decision-making when it's not associated with call taking and dispatching?  Has everyone talked about his or her part in creating a safe and positive work environment?  Do you have an ethics statement?  Did your team create it?  For example, would it be ethical to talk to officers about a trainee who made a mistake on a call?  Do your telecommunicators know exactly what to do when a fellow worker abuses the equipment in frustration or anger?  What would someone do if a dirty joke or picture was distributed in the center?

Suggested Reading #1: Purchase Sexual Harassment in the Comm Center
This book takes real stories from Dispatch Monthly Magazine and Power Point and connects them to the laws on Sexual Harassment. See Professional Pride's bookstore. Another great book is Resolving Conflicts At Work by Kenneth Cloke at amazon.com or other booksellers.

#2: Not Knowing How To Talk To One Another

"No One Listens Anyway"
Poor communications skills can be blamed for probably 99% of the stress and dysfunction at an agency.  And the simple truth is, internal communications skills can and should be taught but are not.  The purpose of communication is to get your message across to others.  This is a process that involves both the sender of the message and the receiver.  This process leaves room for error, with messages often misinterpreted by one or more of the parties involved.  This causes unnecessary confusion and counter productivity.

Suggested Reading #2: Have your team read Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most by Stone, Patton & Heen (it's available at amazon and other booksellers).  If you can do it in a group session, the training should be a dialogue where each person is required to read the section and discuss the principles and practice the techniques offered.

#3: Resistance To New Policies Or Change

"We're Treated Like Mushrooms"
If a rowing team changes direction people don't begin to question and complain - there is 'trust' in the person who knows what direction the group is supposed to be heading in order to get where the team is supposed to be going.  There is no need to question every decision.  However, when people don't understand the direction they are going nor the change of course, demands will create resistance.  Telecommunicators are adults, but many 'demands' treat workers like children.  Therefore it should come as no surprise if workers act like children and refuse to cooperate and question and resist.

Suggested Reading #3: Read Winging It, Supervisors Q & A by Sue Pivetta, available at www.911trainer.com.

"Commitment is demonstrated through accountability."

#4: No Accountability Process

"People Get Away With Murder Here"

Commitment is demonstrated through accountability, which can be loosely defined as "following through on what is expected," or more simply stated, "keeping your word."  When commitment is questioned, trust ( a key element of accountability) becomes impaired.  People at work often do not keep their word because they are centered in self instead of centered in what is best for the team.  People become centered in self when they forget that their job is to serve.  However it must also be noted that people do what they feel is best for self and with accountability for tardiness, negative behaviors, skipping meetings, sick leave abuse, failing to follow through on projects will create a whole new perception about what is best for self; to do the right thing or pay the consequences.  Administrators and supervisors must also keep their word to keep fair and consistent with accountability processes.

Suggested Reading #4: Professional Pride's training program, Breaking Out of Negativity is a downloadable workbook and slideshow program offering a dozen intense personal exercises for less.

#5: Zero Conflict Resolution In Place

"Can't We All Just Get Along? No, Not Really."

What do you do when there is conflict?  How do you feel about conflict?  Is conflict actually a welcomed event that can bring better understanding, uncover unspoken feelings, deal with current stressors and create improvement where needed?  Likely not.  Mediation and peer mediation teams are a new concept.  Most people don't know there is a process to working with conflict that actually and absolutely turns conflict into opportunity.  Put in place a Peer Mediation Team plan today and you will find that you will have more peace at your agency.

Suggested Reading #5: Becoming the Peace-Maker At The Comm Center, a downloadable eBook written by a certification Dispute Resolution Mediator that explains mediation, resolution and understanding the formula used by mediators in court.  Available from Professional Pride.

#6: Knowing What Is Wrong and Doing Nothing

"Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes"

Challenges at the workplace are often ongoing and are assumed to be a part of the culture.  Actually there are many steps you can take to begin a process of change - all solutions begin with an acknowledgement that there is an ongoing problem that may have solutions.  Stress and Negativity are two ongoing challenges that seem to be just a part of the culture but instead are problems that can be neutralized by looking to many of the sources rather than always mopping up after the 'effects' have been realized.  These effects may include high turnover, sick leave, conflict, poor work habits, and low job satisfaction.

Suggested Reading #6: Professional Pride eNews "Got Solutions?" This series can be assessed by signing up to "Join Our Mailing List" at www.911trainer.com

#7: Dealing With 'Effects' Instead of Causes

"Who Is The Enemy Here?"

Let's say you do not have an evaluation process or form that is honored, respected, and useful in planning needed training, retraining, or motivation.  You know it's a problem but what can you do?  There isn't enough time to allow all the supervisors time to revamp the system let alone time to listen to tapes and provide evidence of skill levels and adherence to policy and procedures.  Or let's say your SOP is sadly out of date.  Maybe you don't have a good training manual.  Or you send people to training just to give them a break yet really aren't sure the training is what they need.  Your budget is used up by turnover and overtime and people you hire aren't really fit and either quit or are let go.  You know your training program needs to be changed but the amount of energy and time needed seems overwhelming considering how hard everyone is working anyway.  You're putting out fires when you should be eliminating the fuel source.  Time isn't the enemy - leadership priorities and skill at providing effective leadership are.  Great leaders are able to define priorities and get stuff done - regardless.  Time is money - great leaders can find money if they can make the time.  Great leaders can make the time if they free up time by delegating.  But delegating means giving more work to overworked people - so what's a leader to do?

"You're putting out fires when you should be eliminating the fuel source."

 There are thousands of leadership books out there.  I counted the ones on my shelf: 32.  Most of them have been read, some of them have been used.  There is no great mystery to leadership - it's about getting stuff done; to get stuff done first define what stuff needs to be done.  Next prioritize based on possible losses or potential harm.  Next list all solutions tried and if they worked and solutions not tried and cost.  Let's take one issue and explore how it's handled.  Stress: Determine the source of stress for your people.

Suggested Reading #7: 911 Wellness, Stress Less Trio by Sue Pivetta found at www.911trainer.com.  This book approaches stress at its 'source,' which is personal responsibility, education and skill building for each member of your staff.

I accept chaos, I'm not sure whether it accepts me. -Bob Dylan

"Had This Been a Real Emergency..." Disaster Exercises in the Comm Center

Taken from Public Safety Communications Magazine, August 2010
Written by Bob Smith, APCO International's director of strategic development


East Coast to West Coast to Gulf Coast, hurricane season is upon us.  To prepare, many public safety agencies reviewed, evaluated and updated their disaster response plans and procedures, policies, resource lists and inventories, and personnel were quizzed on new and revised policies.

The best way to evaluate preparedness is to conduct a disaster exercise.  FEMA defines an exercise as "a focused practice activity that places the participants in a simulated situation requiring them to function in the capacity that would be expected of them in a real event.  Its purpose is to promote preparedness by testing policies and plans and training personnel."

Exercises evaluate and improve an agency's disaster response by providing an opportunity for "dry runs" or simulations related to specific disaster types.  Exercises allow all responders to proceed through actual response steps -- in a controlled environment.  They also provide agencies the opportunity to monitor and evaluate their response, the response of others and the effectiveness of their tools, resources and procedures.

Disaster exercises range in format and complexity.  FEMA recognizes several formats, the most common of which are drills, tabletop and full-scale exercises.

Drills are coordinated, supervised exercises used to test a single specific operation or function.  In a drill, there's no attempt to coordinate organizations or fully activate an emergency operations center (EOC).  A drill serves to practice a single component of an agency's response plan and assist in preparations for more complex exercises.

Tabletop exercises are a facilitated analysis of an emergency situation in an informal, stress-free environment.  A table-top exercise is designed to elicit constructive discussion as participants examine and resolve problems based on existing operational plans and identify where those plans need to be refined.  There is minimal attempt at simulation:  Equipment isn't used, resources aren't deployed, and time pressures aren't introduced.

Full-scale exercises simulate a real event as closely as possible.  This type of exercise is designed to evaluate the operational capability of public safety systems in a highly stressful environment that simulates actual response conditions.  It requires the mobilization and movement of emergency personnel, equipment and resources and should test and evaluate most public safety functions.

A jurisdiction's public safety and emergency management agencies may conduct disaster exercises regularly, but it's not uncommon for the comm center's role to be minimized or even absent.  When the comm center is involved, the role may be nothing more than receiving the first simulated 9-1-1 call, dispatching the appropriate resources and possibly monitoring radio traffic as warranted.  This lack of participation is unfortunate.  It doesn't gauge the center's preparedness and causes a significant gap in preparedness.

So how do we address this lack of involvement?

Comm center managers must develop and maintain a quality professional relationship with local field agencies and emergency management officials.  Educating these responders and officials to the comm center's role and importance to disaster response operations before, during and after an event encourages the inclusion of the center and its personnel in exercises.

Comm center employees can play many roles in a disaster exercise, both in and out of the radio room.  They can be used to staff EOCs or to initiate and staff an on-scene Incident Command Post (ICP).

They can also serve as evaluators to gauge and audit specific portions of on-scene operations and compare actions or inactions to exercise objectives, thus establishing a benchmarking process to gauge an exercises success or failure.  Comm center employees require little explanation of field-level operations due to their familiarity with aspects of field-level response.

They can also monitor and evaluate on-scene radio communications and accountability policies during an exercise.

If the comm center isn't invited to participate in local disaster exercises, it falls to management to ensure policies and procedures are tested regularly.  While a jurisdiction conducts a larger disaster exercise, the comm center can incorporate facets of its own disaster preparedness.  Example:  During a large-scale, mass casualty incident-based exercise, a comm center can drill on its policies for notifying local hospitals.  For a hazmat exercise, the center can practice initiating a mass notification system simply by simulating the initiation of a notice or launching an actual system test.  Or the center can review its procedures for activating a secondary PSAP or transferring calls to a backup agency.

The bottom line:  Whether participating in a jurisdictional disaster exercise or conducting a internal drill, the comm center must establish a formal process for testing and evaluating its preparedness.  As the hub of all public safety and emergency management response, failure to ensure the comm center is prepared can cause a domino effect, hampering operations at all levels during an event.

William P. Rutledge, the Father of Police Radio

Taken from Public Safety Communications Magazine, February 2012, Historical Perspective
Written by Richard Rybicki, Historical Committee, chair


So when did all this radio transmission technology begin?

The earliest application of Marconi's wireless was for ships at sea.  They had the first wireless operators on board ship.  The story goes that the radio operator on the Titanic, after it struck an iceberg, was the first to use the SOS, the international distress signal.  This was in April 1912.

Commissioner Rutledge of the Detroit Police department became intrigued by radio when he heard of the sinking of the Titanic.  He envisioned a fleet of automobiles that were linked by radio to police headquarters for dispatching of automobiles.  He surmised that if a ship at sea could pick up radio waves, why not a moving automobile.

Rutledge contacted his nephew Bernard D. (Barney) Fitzgerald, a wireless amateur.  He was the first official radio operator.

The first transmitter was a one-tube self-excited oscillator.  It was on the second floor of the 9th Precinct station house.  It had the amateur license 8BNE and operated in the 200 meter band.  The receiver in the vehicle was a tunable receiver with earphones.

In 1921, Rutledge authorized patrol cars to have radios and ancillary equipment installed.  This was a daunting task that had its fair share of failures.  In December 1922 a radio transmitter was installed at police headquarters.  The Commerce Department, through the Federal Radio Commission, issued Detroit a radio license, KOP.

The Radio Commission also ruled that since it was a commercial license, the radio station, KOP had to broadcast entertainment during regular hours when no police calls were broadcast.  This evoked the reply from Rutledge, "Do we have to play a violin solo before we dispatch police to catch criminals?"

One interesting decisions was made by Rutledge concerning the station, KOP.  In June 1924, he ordered there would be no more musical interludes on the station when not broadcasting police business.  Did this cause the Radio Commission to cancel their license a year later?  The last date of broadcast for KOP was October 1925.

An amateur license, WCK, was issued at a new frequency in April 1926.  The new frequency and other technical problems caused Rutledge to shut down the station one year later.

He did not give up on his idea of police dispatch radio.  He just needed time to consider other avenues.  He enlisted the aid of police officer Kenneth Cox and a young radio engineer, Robert Batts, to keep working on the problems.  These two developed a radio receiver with fixed tuning that was very reliable.  The story is they took it into the commissioner's office and dropped it on the floor, and it continued to work.

In 1928, a Purdue undergraduate in electrical engineering, Batts built a radio system for use in the patrol cars of the Detroit police department.  The police department already had a transmitter.  Batts created the receiver: a three-stage, tuned-radio frequency superheterodyne with a two-stage audio amplifier.  The receiver operated from an external storage battery on the car's running board and B and C batteries under the floorboards.  The antenna was woven into the car's fabric roof.  The first radio-equipped patrol car - #5, a Lincoln cruiser, received its first transmission on April 7, 1928.  Batts' success with one-way transmission attracted national attention, and by 1933, two-way police radios had appeared.

Between the new receivers, a move away from the noisy downtown area to Belle Isle, a better antenna system and approval by the Commerce Commission, police radio communications began on a permanent basis on April 7, 1928.

The first full year of operation in 1929, there were 22,598 police messages and 8,228 runs were dispatched.  In December 1929, continuous 24-hour operation began.  This happened after Rutledge tried to get a car dispatched and was informed that the radio division did not work on Sundays.  Another development: To ensure the radios were working properly, the time and call letters were broadcast to the vehicles every 15 minutes.  This has not become standard practice.

Stop Coddling Bad Guys Who Kill Police Dogs

Taken from American Police Beat Magazine, November 2012 Volume XIX
Written by Lt. Lance M. Burris, retired Police Chief of Detectives and currently employed as a Master Instructor with the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy.  He is a published author and a frequent contributor to the American Police Beat Magazine.


Police officers are subjected to stressful and dangerous duties every shift they work.  Likewise, police dogs are vulnerable to the same stress and danger as their handler.

These well-trained dogs are not only police officers, but become a true member of the handler's family as well.  When we lose one of these animals in the line of duty, it is a devastating loss.

So what happens when a law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty and the suspect is apprehended?

That officer is charged with a homicide in the death of the officer.

What if a certified law enforcement K-9 is injured or killed in the line of duty?

In this state, the Indiana law indicates that for an assailant to be charged with murder, the death must be that of a human being.

The statute reads, "a person who knowingly or intentionally kills another human being."  So what about the K-9?  Is the police dog not a living creature?  This is a question that must be answered by state legislatures across the country.

In July 2012, a report by the "Indiana Criminal Code Evaluation Commission Review of Criminal Code" was submitted after evaluating the criminal laws of Indiana.  One of the laws reviewed was Indiana Code (IC) 35-46-11 "Law Enforcement Animal; Mistreatment or Interference."

The committee reported the offense should remain a Class A misdemeanor and enhanced to a felony if the violation resulted in serious permanent disfigurement, unconsciousness, loss of use of limb/organ, or death of the animal so that if a person knowingly or intentionally causes the aforementioned they are charged with a Class D felony.

A Class D felony can be changed by the court to a Class A misdemeanor (a lesser charge) under certain circumstances.

Recently, two of our police dogs working with the Anderson P.D. were murdered by individuals during the commission of a crime.

Sgt. Craig Patton, a long-time K-9 trainer with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said that while rare, police dogs do get killed in the line of duty.  "It happens," Patton said, "but it doesn't happen often."

Magnum was shot while searching for a suspected bank robber after his handler set him free to search a wooded area.  Magnum was shot in the nose by the suspect and the bullet travelled down into his lungs.  Magnum did not recover from emergency surgery where vets tried in vain to save his life.  The suspect was apprehended and charged with killing Magnum, a class D felony.

An officer in Fortville, Indiana was shot and wounded in an ambush style attack by a subject who was stopped for a traffic violation.  The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department along with the Lawrence P.D. assisted.  A Lawrence Police Department K-9 was shot while he was waiting inside the police car by the suspect.  The suspect, who exchanged fire with the officers, was killed during the exchange.

Another Anderson Police Department canine, Kilo, was also killed in a shootout with an armed individual who shot and wounded the dog and his handler.  With the handler down, the wounded dog sought to protect his partner and attacked another police officer who responded to the scene.

Tragically, another officer had to shoot Kilo to protect the downed colleague.  Can anyone even envision the officer's frame of mind when he had to shoot the police dog?

The stress this officer and Kilo's handler are now experiencing must be overwhelming.  The perpetrator escaped justice when he shot and killed himself.

Perhaps it's time for legislators in every state to revisit the current laws on the books as they pertain to police dogs.

K-9's are part of the law enforcement community.  They don't carry guns for protection, but they do protect their handlers and other members of the department.  They are loyal, faithful and dedicated employees who risk it all by rooting out, chasing and apprehending those who commit criminal acts.

When they are murdered, it should be looked upon as a serious felony and dealt with as such.  These are not just other dogs.  They are police dogs.

Integrity: The Leader's Role in Comm Center Ethics

Taken from Public Safety Communications Magazine, October 2012
Written by John R. Brophy, market general manager for the Georgia Division of Rural/Metro (R/M) Ambulance.  Prior to joining the R/M team, Brophy led two comm centers to ACE Accreditation.  He has more than 30 years' experience in emergency services, including both fire and EMS.  He is the author of Leadership Essentials for Emergency Medical Services, as well as numerous articles for trade publications, and is a frequent speaker at national and regional conferences, as well as internationally.


Leadership in action:  You are a front-line supervisor in the comm center, and your manager comes to you with concerns raised by several of the field staff you dispatch.  The concerns allege that one of your dispatchers is incompetent, as evidenced by field personnel repeatedly being dispatched to calls where the nature of the emergency on arrival does not match the nature at dispatch.

We all know that this will happen sometimes when a caller doesn't grasp the true nature of the emergency and incorrectly describes what is happening.  But contributing to the concerns expressed is the fact that the employee in question is an average performer and not part of the "in" crowd.

You call upon the employee in question to discuss the concerns, and they say that their partner in the comm center isn't very helpful.  They call attention to things that they would help others with but won't help the employee in question.

Upon review of CAD records you notice some anomalies and pull tapes to learn more.  After a lengthy review, you conclude that the mistakes were actually those of another dispatcher who is well liked by peers and field staff alike and not of the unpopular average performer.

1. What would your next steps be?
2. How would you clear the name of the average performer in the eyes of their peers and the field personnel?
3. How would you address the fact that the mistakes were made by someone else?
4. What if, upon further review, you found that the misakes weren't mistakes at all, but rather an attempt to make the average performer look bad in order to facilitate their termination?
5. How do you think supporting the unpopular employee who did not make any mistakes while addressing the more popular employee's actions will play with those around you in the short and long term?  Why?

The above questions don't have "right" answers.  They're intended to prompt thought and discussion about the nature of integrity.

Leadership in the comm center is about character and trust.  Everything a leader does sets the tone and will be viewed by others as an example of what the leader expects.  If the leader is always on time, dresses professionally and treats people with respect, that will set the tone for the staff to echo.  But if the leader comes in late and leaves early while wearing a less-than-professional-looking uniform and criticizes others in public or behind their backs, all the policies in the world outlining expected workplace behavior will not have as great an impact on behavior and performance as the example the leader is setting with their own actions.

In short, personal integrity has a significant impact on leadership effectiveness.

INTEGRITY
Influencing staff behavior, attitudes and commitment is a key function of leadership, with the comm center at the heart of all operations regardless of the type or size of the agency(s).  It's vital that those who play a leadership role have a strong ethical compass to ensure their moral and earned authority with the people around them is strong and that their actions are above reproach.

When we talk about personal integrity, "the most basic definition emphasizes honesty and consistency between a person's values and behavior."  When people have confidence in the integrity of their leader, they will respect both the decisions they agree with and the ones they don't.  If the leader's integrity is in question, their ability to sustain a relationship of trust with their people will be difficult, if not impossible.

It's always better to employ disciplined people than to have people who need to be disciplined.  Followers often mirror their leaders.  Therefore, leaders must hold themselves to a higher standard, especially when it comes to integrity, than they do their staff.  Anything less is irresponsible and will result in mixed messages and inconsistent performance.

HOW TO LOSE RESPECT
There are many things that a leader can do besides holding themselves to a higher standard that will have a positive impact on their ability to lead, but there are a few key acts of irresponsibility that will almost certainly scuttle a leader's authority with their staff.  These include failure to take reasonable efforts to prevent followers' misdeeds; ignoring or denying ethical problems; not taking responsibility for their actions or directives; and denying or shirking their responsibilities to followers.

There are many ways to both build and shatter trust, but it takes far longer to build it than to shatter it.  A leader can spend weeks, months, even years building their moral and earned authority, but one misstep can have a profound negative impact.  Such negative impact may or may not be recoverable, but even if it is it will take a long time to rebuild what was taken away.  Staff may forgive the misstep by the leader, but it can never be undone; it is a part of that leader's history now.

How a leader applies their ethics based on the situation at hand will have an impact on the events at hand and will also follow them on the mental scorecard all around them keep, either consciously or unconsciously.  People in leadership, while guided by policies and procedures, have various levels of authority and discretion with respect to how to handle the situations they face.  Handling matters consistently and fairly will achieve the best results in both the short and long term.  However, when a leader allows an end to justify their means or allows a personal agenda to skew their ethical compass the impact can be significant and reach far beyond the situation at hand.  It's important for a leader to remember that "even when no one is looking you always are."

In my view, when a leader deviates from fairness for a less than honorable reason they have created a self-inflicted hardship.  They will pay the consequences with whatever fallout results, and because of their role as a leader, so too will the organization and its people.

HELP WANTED
One litmus test of both a leader's effectiveness and the trust their people have in them comes when a leader asks one of their people about their progress, and they never need any help.  Either the leader failed to provide challenging work that will serve to grow the individual personally and professionally or the follower does not have enough trust in the leader to share their shortcomings or ask for help.  If it is the former, the leader needs to work on their personnel development skills, if the latter the leader has far more work to do for the absence of trust is more of an abyss than the relative pothole that is their need to challenge their staff more.

Creating an ethical climate within the comm center, or any organization for that matter requires more than just the adopting and posting of a code of ethics or values statement.  But using such tools as part of a comprehensive approach to achieve such a result can help chart the course and serve as a reminder of the key expectations.  The most impactful thing a leader can do to create and sustain a culture centered on ethics and values is to model the behaviors expected and quickly act upon behaviors that are inconsistant.

Comm center supervisors and managers will lead by example, whether they intend to or not.  Leaders who arrive on time in a clean and pressed uniform demonstrate what is expected.  But they need to take it one step further.  When they see staff whose appearance is not up to par and say nothing, they send a message to everyone that they accept that level of appearance as "within standards."  Something seemingly trivial like unshined shoes or a wrinkled or dirty shirt that goes unchecked by the supervisor will send a message that they didn't notice or have accepted it.

Another example:  When a supervisor or manager overhears, or worse yet participates in, an inappropriate conversation.  Whether the topic or the language used to discuss the topic is inappropriate, by allowing it to go unchecked the comm center supervisor is putting their stamp of approval on it.

If the actions of the leader are not in keeping with the words on the ethics code or values statement, they will drown out those words, and the behavior modeled by the leader will be replicated.  If the leader's actions are in keeping with the established standards and they model the way toward an ethical and just culture, one will be achieved.

In his book The Nature of Leadership, B. Joseph White shares a fear that echoes observations I have made.  He writes, "I am concerned that a generation of young Americans has come to equate leadership with nothing more than the opportunity to get power, get rich, get whatever you want."

If it wasn't hard enough for a leader to establish a positive relationship of trust in their comm center based on their own actions and reputation, they potentially start out a few steps further back, having to overcome a stigma and mistrust of leaders in general that is fostered by the actions of past and present leaders in our country and throughout the world.

The lesson aspiring, new and experienced leaders alike must think, speak and act above reproach both on and off the job.  By doing so, they will establish their own moral standing with the people around them.  Trust will be earned on the merits of their actions.  As this earned authority builds over time, the leader will take control of their own leadership legacy while distancing themselves from the negative impressions of leaders in general that was shaped by those high-profile leaders who betrayed the trust placed in them.  Over time their efforts will serve to establish them as a leader of character and integrity.

A PRIVILEGE & A RESPONSIBILITY
Serving as a leader in an emergency comm center requires that the individual entrusted with this responsibility understand that it is both a privilege and a responsibility.  A significant trust is placed on those entrusted to provide leadership to those who protect and serve others in their times of need.