The Aspiring Supervisor: Understanding the Opportunities & Challenges, While Avoiding the Pitfalls

Article taken from Public Safety Communications Magazine January 2007
Written by Alicia Ihnken, Interim Director for APCO Institute


So you want to be a supervisor. Receiving a promotion is a good thing: it presents many opportunities for personal and professional growth. A promotion also brings its share of problems and trials. Whether you've recently been promoted to a supervisory position or are hoping to become a supervisor, you'll face many transitional challenges for which you may not be prepared. To ensure a smooth transition, you should examine your opportunities, understand the challenges and learn how to avoid the pitfalls.

Exploring Opportunities in Your Own Agency

First, let's examine the opportunities. Almost any agency can present opportunities for advancement, although some may be harder to find than others. You may have to wait for an opening, or you may have to create your own position. You might also have to look beyond your agency to find an opportunity that's right for you.

No matter how large or small, public safety agencies have certain common factors that govern promotions. High turnover, budget constraints and even the corporate desire for expansion or exclusivity are a few commonalities. Either turnover or expansion can result in the creation of supervisor positions and present opportunities for advancement.

The first objective for you as an aspiring supervisor is to know and perform your current job well. If you don't have a firm grasp on your existing position, you most likely won't have the necessary base of knowledge, skills and abilities to be promoted.

Second, learn everything you can about the position you're seeking. Read the job description in your agency's "Rules and Regulations" or other employee information guide. Some agencies publish job descriptions online, which can be a valuable resource. This also give you the opportunity to see what other agencies expect of the position. If you can't locate a job description, consult your human resources department. You can also find out more by speaking with those who already hold the position and with their subordinates.

After you've learned as much as you can about the position you're seeking, take a good look at the required knowledge, skills and abilities and see how you measure up. Make a checklist with three categories: meet, exceed and need improvement. Then, grade yourself to get a good indication of what you have to offer and what you need to work on. This process can also help you when it comes time to fill out an application and/or update your resume. The better you prepare before you apply, the better your chance for success.

Creating Opportunities

If your agency has no current opportunities, you still have options. You can wait for an opening, create your own opportunity or look beyond your own agency. If the turnover rate at your agency is low or there's little possibility of expansion, start investigating what unmet needs your agency may have. This requires taking a look at every job description to see what is supposed to be done by that position and comparing it with what is being done. What duties are not delineated? What duties are not being performed because other duties take up too much time? Is the training division a shambles? Is there a need for a full-time computer (or information technology) person?

Once you determine what your agency really needs, take another look at your abilities and see what you have to offer. This can be difficult and time-consuming, but it has the possibility of culminating in a job tailor-made for you and your agency!

If--after examining the possibilities within your own agency--you don't find a good match, don't be afraid to branch out. Is there an affiliated agency with more opportunities? Is there another agency that might be hiring from the outside for a supervisory or management position? One cautionary note: The grass is not always greener elsewhere.

Determine your best course of action, whether it's leaving the familiar, continuing to learn all you can about your current agency, waiting for an opportunity or creating your own.

Developing Your Professional Career

You may be in the process of researching a position, be waiting for a position to open up or already have applied to a position, so what do you do while you're waiting? Regardless of whether or not a promotion is on your horizon, developing your professional and personal life is important. Seeking out courses and informative seminars is an excellent way to bolster your qualifications.

Knowledge is power, so be assertive in your quest.

The Next Steps

Let's say you've done your research, continued your professional development and succeeded in earning a promotion. You've outshined the competition, and now the position is yours. You're a supervisor. Congratulations!

Now comes the hard part. Your relationships and your responsibilities will change. In addition to all that, you'll be walking a fine line while you attempt to "prove" you were the right choice. These changes can lead to trials and tribulations, but if you learn the common pitfalls and how to avoid them, you'll be ahead of the game.

Relationship changes: With any change in title comes inevitalbe changes in relationships. You leave your familiar set of peers and join a new set. This may be one of the hardest transitions to make.

For quite some time, you've been part of a group with similar pay, work hours, interests and job responsibilities. Even if your relationships have been confined to work hours, these relationships will be greatly affected because of your promotion. This may cause your co-workers--and you--to question your loyalties. Your former co-workers will expect you to make changes on their behalf, and your new peers will expect you to see their point of view. This can make it difficult to remain friends with your former co-workers. For example, if you're going to supervise a friend you had prior to your promotion, you may want to look into a shift change for either you or your friend. This does not mean that you can't keep your old relationships; it does mean that you must remain objective. You must decide the type of interaction you will have and ensure it doesn't affect the execution of your new responsibilities. One way to help ease this transition is to examine how your relationships might change with a promotion while you're still in the exploration stage.

No matter what discussions you have with your friends about your promotion, it can be very difficult to maintain both professional and personal relationships. In all cases of argument, hurt feelings and resentment, be the better person and do not succumb to pettiness.

Another trap to avoid in this change of relationship is trying to be popular. In the effort to be liked, some new supervisors are tempted to make promises about implementing change. Be careful. Even if you were given certain assurances, during an interview perhaps, practice care when communicating this to your subordinates. In many agencies, change comes slowly, and if you start making grand promises, you may end up looking like a failure when those changes either take longer than expected or don't happen at all. While it may make you popular in the short run to make grandiose promises or give friends preferential treatment, it will catch up with you, and ultimately you will fail as a supervisor.

As a supervisor, you will most likely need to make decisions that could positively affect some and negatively affect others. This will not win you friends. The key is to maintain objectivity and keep lines of communication open so your subordinates understand the reasons behind any decisions or changes you make.

Don't confuse popularity with respect. You don't have to be popular to be a good supervisor, but you must have the respect of those you supervise. The only promises you may want to make are those of character. It is one thing to promise that you will do your best and quite another to guarantee hourly breaks and paid lunches. It's better to prove yourself by your actions, not your words.

Responsibility changes: Even if you're convinced you won't change after a promotion, you will change. You may have been a dispatcher, a calltaker, a records clerk or served in any number of frontline positions, but you will change because your responsibilities will change. You need to know how to plan, negotiate and delegate. Now the decisions you make affect more than just yourself. You are responsible for more than just you. Just as you will be doing different things, you won't be able to do the same things you did. This can be difficult, especially for those who get promoted because they're good at what they do.

For a position that has been recently created or never-before filled, the first person to hold it often sets the precendence for the role. Make sure you have a job description and know what's expected of you. Don't rely on the spoken word. If there's not an official job description, take measures to have one formalized.

During any transition where you are learning a new role and new responsibilities, it can take time to develop confidence and stability. Most agencies provide for a probatioinary period to allow for that adjustment. Don't take that time for granted. It's during your probationary period that you should learn as much as you can as fast as you can about how to do your job. At the same time, however, don't make excuses for yourself (e.g., "You'll have to forgive me; I'm new."). Instead, decide upfront to handle difficult situations with grace and patience. It's fine to admit you don't know something, but better to have a plan in place to ensure you learn about it.

Asserting your authority: With this change in responsibility comes authority. This may have been one of the reasons you applied for the position. Up until now, you've been on the outside looking in and have most likely formulated your own opinion about how things should be run. Keep in mind that you must be careful in how you assert this newfound authority. You might have the authority to dictate when your staff goes on break or who to schedule for overtime or order to stay late. How you handle these situations, with grace or petty ruthlessness, is a true test of a good supervisor. You must understand your authority and decide how you will act before a situation arises.

One challenge with a change in authority is learning the difference between perceived authority and real authority. Make sure you know your true authority. Real authority comes from your job description and assignments from your supervisor. Perceived authority comes from your subordinates' perspective. What you thought your supervisor had the "power" to do may or may not have been accurate. Likewise, your subordinates may assume you have the power to make decisions that may or may not be supported by your actual authority. If you really don't have the authority to tell a subordinate to leave for the day, but do so anyway, they will most likely comply (perceived authority) and it will be you who gets into trouble. If you start out in your new role by being conscientious about what is truly your responsibility and under your scope of authority, it will keep you from overstepping your bounds.

The way you assert your real authority can also get you into trouble. Just because you may now have the authority to tell people when they can and can't go on break does not mean you can abuse it. Having a problem with one of your subordinates does not give you the right to deny them the same consideration you would give anyone else.

Don't Give Up

It won't be easy. As you adjust to your new relationships and responsibilities, you may think, "What have I gotten myself into?" This is a natural reaction similar to "buyer's remorse." It will take time for people to accept you in your new role. Any transition can be difficult. Think about when you were the new person. How did you conduct yourself? What worked and what didn't? What did you learn from that experience that will help you now? Your core being has not changed, but, over time, your attitude and demeanor may have. Make sure you have a firm grasp on what the position requires and how you will proceed with issues before they occur.

Don't rely on word of mouth for making decisions. It's OK to rely on others' expertise during your transition, but eventually you'll have to stand on your own and prove you were the right choice. Remember, you would not have been promoted if you did not have the right stuff.

If you do your research, continue to develop yourself professionally as well as personally and plan ahead for how you will deal with issues and assert your authority, you'll have the tools to make the successful transition into a model supervisor.

911 Dispatchers Feel Stress of Being First Responders

Article taken from madison.com August 24, 2007
Written by Chris Rickert


Sue Buechner still remembers the suicidal man's name: Roosevelt.

He was in his 20s and had barricaded himself in a bathroom at his mother's house with a gun when his frantic family called 911.

Buechner - who was new to her job with DU-COMM, a 911 dispatch center serving several communities in DuPage County, Ill. - instructed the family to keep the line open as they tried to calm the man, without success.

"Six weeks on the job, I was listening as a guy committed suicide," she said. "I figured if I was going to quit, I would have done it then."

Sometimes having to rely on distraught or less-than-forthcoming callers to determine the seriousness of a situation, police and fire dispatchers are responsible for making initial assessments of sometimes chaotic calls and getting the necessary help - police, firefighters, paramedics - to the scene as soon as possible. They are often the first line of help in an emergency, even if their work is largely invisible to the public.

But two highly publicized incidents this summer have put dispatchers' work - and its stress-inducing nature - in the spotlight:

• On Independence Day, dispatchers with Dane County and Middleton Police used sophisticated cell-phone signal tracking techniques to locate a pickup that had been driven off a cliff and into a quarry, killing a 22-year-old man and injuring five others in their early 20s;
• And on July 15th, a reportedly suicidal man was shot by police after he brandished what turned out to be a pellet gun at them. Information relayed to the 911 center moments before he died indicated the gun was not real.

"I think there is a big information gap in the criticality in a 911 call taker," said Wanda McCarley, president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, or APCO. "Dispatcher is one of the most stressful jobs out there."

"Don't Hang Up On Me"

The six young adults in the pickup truck that went over the edge of the Yahara Materials Meinholz Quarry, falling some 70 feet, went there to set off fireworks.

The driver of the truck died in the crash and five others were hurt, some critically. Buechner, who took the initial 911 call, didn't know that at the time. First, she had to contend with a bad cell connection and an upset young man trying to tell her where they were and how badly he and his friends were hurt.

"We went off the quarry. There's people trapped in the vehicle. I need help, please!" the teen tells Buechner, who joined the Middleton Police Department 2 1/2 years ago and has been a dispatcher for about 6 1/2 years.

Per Middleton's operating protocol, Buechner tried to transfer the call to Dane County, which would dispatch rescue workers, but the cell signal was lost.

She called back and got a busy signal, then tried again, got through and questioned the caller more specifically about where they are and what happened. But the line went dead again.

Buechner was trying to call back a third time when the man called from a different cell phone. In the background, people could be heard yelling.

"Hello," the caller said. "Don't hang up on me!"

Listening to the Tape

"I still remember a lot of bad calls," Buechner said recently. But she generally doesn't like to listen to recordings of them after they're over. They can be very emotional, she said.

She did listen to the July 4th recordings again, and knows she and the emergency workers on the scene did everything they could - were, in fact, able to rescue five people from a crash that could have turned out much worse.

Middleton police officer David Kasdorf, who was one of the first to arrive at the scene, echoed that sentiment and said emergency responders rely heavily on dispatchers to tell them where to go when the call is coming from such a remote location. In this case, the cell tower the 911 call was routed through was near another quarry, and authorities briefly thought the crash was there.

"It's amazing that anybody came out alive," he said.

Buechner regrets one thing she didn't say during the call--an omission the average listener most likely wouldn't notice.

"At some point he said, 'Don't hang up,'"she said, but she didn't respond. She realized later that at the time, there was other radio traffic she had to handle.

Still, she thinks, "My God, why didn't I say something to comfort him?"

Could Have Done Differently

Crystal Daley, a dispatcher with the Dane County 911 center, also thinks about the thing she could have done differently during a call from the ex-wife of the man Madison police shot to death on Camden Road on July 15th.

Ronald Brandon, 48, called 911 that day and calmly reported a man wielding a gun. It turned out Brandon was the man, and when police got there, police say he made a threatening gesture with his weapon - later found to be a pellet gun - and police shot and killed him.

Investigators believe Brandon's death was a case of "suicide by cop" and have said police and dispatchers handled the incident properly.

In an approximately three-minute 911 call, Brandon's ex-wife, Susan, told Daley that Brandon made the call from her home and that the gun was a pellet gun. Daley typed the information into the computer system and relayed it to other dispatchers, who then relayed it to police.

But the information got to officers too late.

After Ronald Brandon was shot and as Susan Brandon screamed and cried over the phone, Daley explained to her, "Regardless of what kind of gun he had, he must have brandished it at the officer."

She meant it as a way to give a distraught woman some information about what had just happened, Daley said. But, "whether it was the truth, it just wasn't a nice thing to say to a family member...I could have just been like, 'I'm sorry this happened.'"

District Attorney Brian Blanchard has said that even if officers had been told of the report that the gun was a pellet gun, there's no guarantee the information would have changed the outcome because it wouldn't have been clear at the time which of the two callers was the more credible.

Still, Daley said the Susan Brandon call was "probably one of the worst calls I've ever taken."

"Hope to never get it again," she said.

Feeling Helpless

Several dispatchers interviewed for this story said one of the consistently stressful things about their job is knowing just about everything that's going on at a scene but not being able to take a more direct role in doing something about it.

"Sometimes they feel kind of helpless," said Middleton Police Lt. Noel Kakuske.

That can be especially true when the dispatcher has experience as a firefighter, paramedic or some other emergency worker, as many do.

Then there's the second-guessing. Like Buechner and Daley, Sauk County dispatcher Mary Bellis initially worried she hadn't done enough to try to save the life of Weston High School principal John Klang, who was shot to death last year by student Eric Hainstock. Bellis took the first 911 call about the shooting.

"I had a lot of guilt for a while...thinking there was something I could have done to help the principal," she said. Looking back now, she said she knows she did everything she could.

Not knowing the outcome of a call can be "frustrating" as well, said Paul Logan, a 14-year Dane County dispatcher and president of the state APCO chapter.

Many also said incidents involving children are particularly difficult.

Dealing With The Stress

To help cope with these and other stressors, emergency services departments hold "debriefings" after particularly serious incidents.

The sessions are a way for all the people involved in an incident to find out what the others were doing, but also serve as forums for mutual support.

For Buechner, a debriefing on the quarry crash allowed her to see it from a "different perspective." She realized that while the incident was tragic, rescue workers were still able to save the lives of five people.

After the Brandon shooting, Daley was part of a debriefing session with police and others involved. Two counselors were also brought in to speak with the workers, she said.

"It's nice to have all the pieces put together," Daley said. The Dane County 911 center also held a session for its employees after the incident, kind of a "team-building" session, she said.

A sense of closure can be key, too, in relieving some of the stress of the job. Logan said dispatchers sometimes follow up with police or others to find out what happened with memorable calls.

Nearly three years after leaving his position as a dispatcher with Dane County, Dan Dyer said talking about the Red Caboose Day Care shooting on March 9, 2004, still stirs us some of the feelings of stress he experienced in 25 years on the job.

That incident, in which police shot to death a mentally deranged man wielding a knife at a day-care center, was one of the most serious calls he handled, he said.

He left to take a position in the county treasurer's office in part to get away from the stress of being a dispatcher.

High Turnover

Turnover among dispatchers has traditionally been high, according to McCarley.

At Dane County 911, the county's largest dispatch center - with about 511,000 incoming calls a year, including 174,000 911 calls - it's been running between 15 percent and 17 percent annually, according to Chas Klauer, a communications supervisor there.

But the stress of dealing with difficult calls isn't the overriding reason people leave, he said: Some simply don't know what they're getting into with a job that requires alot of night and holiday work and a workload that can vary significantly from one day to the next.

As McCarley put it, "It takes a lot of courage to stay in your chair...during some of the situations that they encounter."

Your Most Valuable Resource

Editorial taken from Public Safety Communications Magazine June 2006
Written by Toni Finley, Managing Editor


You've heard it a million times. You may even have said it. Say it with me now, in the first person, and listen to the truth in the words: "My employees are my most valuable resource."

But do you live it?

Many studies have shown that it costs much more to replace an employee than to retain one. The costs are higher in our industry than in most others, as we must recruit widely and frequently, test extensively and conduct exhaustive background searches on potential employees.

Finding people who truly are suited to the comm center is a coup and we would be foolish to throw these people away over trivialities like shift conflicts or childcare issues, for instance. We have to find ways to accomodate the lives of our employees and their outside worlds if we want them to dedicate their worklives to our centers.

We expect these uniquely qualified women and men - veritable needles in a haystack - to work any and all hours, holidays and weather conditions, often as mandatory overtime, and with little or no notice for schedule changes. Hurricane coming? We expect them to come to work as emergency personnel when others are evacuating with their families and pets. Blizzard? We expect them to drive on icy roads to the center when the rest of the town is shut down. Wild fires? We expect them to abandon their homesteads and work as the flames encroach on their neighborhoods.

And what do we do for them?

Do we fill all available staff positions so mandatory overtime is minimized? Do we grant shift swaps, so our employees can work the shifts their internal clocks are suited to best? Do we schedule days (or half-days) off so they can attend graduation ceremonies or weddings or school plays? Do we ask them what they need to make their workplaces good places to work? Do we listen to the answers and act on them when we can? Or do we take a "cry me a river" attitude when employees ask us to consider that they are spouses, parents, care-givers, PEOPLE...not just telecommunicators?

With the documented staff shortages in our comm center and the special considerations we must give to hiring, given the nature of our business, we cannot afford to alienate, discount or dismiss our staff when they are already bending over backward to make their lives fit our needs. I urge you to take the time to consider the matter deeply. In a world where your personnel are indeed your most valuable resources, you can't afford not to.

Domestic Violence

Article taken from Public Safety Communications Magazine July 2006
Written by Sandy Campbell, APCO Institute Curriculum Writer


Domestic violence calls are challenging for calltakers in any communications center. The telecommunicator picks up the line, hearing the all-too-familiar background sounds of screaming, bickering, name-calling or the frightened voice of a small child reporting, "My mommy and daddy are fighting." Words which, when spoken by a small child, can soften the hardest of hearts. Without proper policy and procedures or adequate training in domestic violence call types, telecommunicators are left to their own judgment.

Domestic violence response remains one of the leading causes of law-enforcement line-of-duty deaths in America today and reinforces the need for additional training in proper call-handling procedures.

Telecommunicators play a vital role in receiving and processing reports of domestic violence. Domestic violence calls are life-threatening, volatile situations for victims and emergency responders, and telecommunicators must be knowledgeable regarding:

• Domestic violence facts and statistics
• Common myths (able to identify and dispel)
• Federal, state, and local laws
• Agency policies and procedures
• Critical responder-safety issues

The legal definition of domestic violence varies widely form state to state, but generally it includes violence toward or physical abuse of one's spouse or intimate partner. Domestic violence victims may be married, living together, separated, divorced or may share a child in common. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, "a significant number of states include current or former dating relationships in domestic violence laws."

Typical criminal domestic violence incidents may include:

• Verbal abuse (shouting, name-calling, degrading comments)
• Threatened physical harm
• Physical abuse (pushing, shoving, slapping, hitting, choking)
• Stalking and/or intimidation
• Sexual assault and/or rape
• Serious bodily injury and/or homicide.

Additional forms of domestic violence, while not criminal, may include emotional, psychological and financial abuse. Domestic violence victims often are isolated from their friends and families by their abusers and their finances are controlled or withheld, leaving them feeling helpless and trapped in the abusive relationship.

In 1994, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Under the act, all federal domestic violence violations are felonies. VAWA provides many resources and protection services for domestic violence victims (women and men). The VAWA act was reauthorized by Congress in January 2006.

Domestic violence is ultimately about control or dominance over one's intimate partner. There are many myths that perpetuate misconceptions about domestic violence. Some of the more common myths are listed below:

• Myth: Domestic violence is not a problem in my community. Fact: It is estimated that 8.5 million Americans are victims of domestic violence each year and there are no geographical boundaries.
• Myth: Domestic violence only affects certain lower-income, racial or minority groups. Fact: Victims of domestic violence come from all walks of life. Victims from upper-income groups typically have more available resources. Lower-income victims rely on public-service agencies for assistance and are tracked through such programs.
• Myth: Domestic violence victims are always women. Fact: Domestic violence is not gender-specific, commonly affecting men, children and even family pets.
• Myth: Domestic violence is a result of drug or alcohol abuse. Fact: Substance abuse remains an excuse for many abusers, but does not cause imbibers to abuse their intimate partners.
• Myth: Domestic violence stems from anger-control issues. Fact: If anger-control issues were the cause of domestic violence, abusers would batter individuals other than their intimate partners.
• Myth: Domestic violence victims are heterosexual. Fact: Sexual orientation is not a determining factor in domestic violence.

When processing domestic violence calls, as with other life-threatening calls, the safety of the caller is paramount. Basic information-gathering techniques should be observed and all pertinent information relayed to responding units.

During the information-gathering stage, any sudden change in the caller's behavior may indicate the abuser's presence. Having the caller respond to "yes" or "no" questions by using codes (i.e., push a telephone button once for yes and twice for no) may be a method to obtain additional information.

Telecommunicators, through words and tone of voice, must reassure victims that help is on the way. If the victim calls back, before responding units arrive, to cancel the request for assistance, the call should not be disregarded and responding units should be updated, not cancelled.

The exact location (e.g., the room inside the residence where the incident is occurring) can be significant information, as guns frequently are kept in bedrooms and knives stored in kitchens. Handguns are used commonly in domestic homicides, so weapon availability is always vital information.

If available, previous records for the address should be reviewed for any prior domestic violence reports, along with arrest records and temporary or permanent personal protective or restraining orders.

As mentioned earlier, responses to domestic violence reports pose an increased safety risk to responders and, like caller safety, these risks must be a primary concern for telecommunicators. Repeat calls and victims who change their stories can cause frustration for law-enforcement officers. Over time, this can lead to apathetic attitudes that can prove dangerous for the victim and the officers. Receiving repeat calls for assistance from the same address does not ensure the situation will be the same each time. Every domestic violence incident reported requires a law-enforcement response and, if availabe, two officers should respond whether the threat is immediate or remote.

Telecommunicators should perform safety-status checks of on-scene responders as they would with any high-priority incident. Emergency medical services (EMS) may need to respond to reports of injuries along with law-enforcement units. Several EMS agencies require badges as part of their uniform attire and EMS personnel can be mistaken for law-enforcement officers, leaving them susceptible to possible attacks.

Domestic violence incidents require a coordinated response and EMS units should stage in a safe area, away from danger until law enforcement has secured the scene. The same applies to firefighters acting as first responders. Remember to consider the safety of the victim and responders throughout the entire call.

Getting a better understanding of domestic violence will give you confidence in identifying and handling crisis calls from victims and their children. Always consult your agency's policy and procedures for information on how you should handle domestic violence calls.

The Flip Side of Liability

Article taken from Public Safety Communications Magazine February 2006
Written by Jennifer Hastrom, APCO Contributing Editor


Recently, I was in an in-service training where we did calltaking scenarios. This was a little nerve-wracking for me. As a part-time law-enforcement radio operator, it had been more than six years since I actually took a call.

After my trial by fire, though (they took pity on me and gave me a law-enforcement scenario), it was actually fun and I think we all learned something. The instructors clarified EMD-classification points and gave out a few law-enforcement calls that fell into gray classification areas, so the discussion was lively throughout.

One scenario in particular brought out an interesting point. It involved the instructor playing a young child (old enough to read, but not much older) calling in to report her father was going into anaphylactic shock as a result of an allergic reaction to a bee sting. When the scenario started, the father was in fairly severe respiratory distress and getting worse.

During the scenario, the calltaker elicited that the patient had been given a prescription to use if stung, but his condition had deteriorated so quickly he had not been able to use it. The caller (the child) had access to the medicine.

Following the protocols, the scenario calltaker read the instruction telling the child to administer the medication as per the instructions printed on it. The instructor playing the child protested that she was too afraid to do it. Ultimately, the scenario ended with the medication untaken.

The instructor asked us for input on how the medication issue might have been better handled. Someone suggested, and the instructor agreed, that the calltaker could have helped the child handle it better. The calltaker protested that doing so wasn't listed on the protocols and that he'd been warned time and again not to stray from them.

The instructor told him that having the child read the instructions off the bottle and then talking the child through administering the medications would, ultimately, be following the protocols, as the intent of the protocols was to get the medication inside the patient.

The calltaker protested, saying he couldn't be sure the kid was reading the bottle right. And then he brought out the dreaded "L" word: liability.

The instructor, who is also our certified EMD instructor and QA manager, told him that he wouldn't be held liable if the child read the medication wrong. (After all, isn't calltaking an exercise in making the best possible decisions based on the information given - right or wrong, true or false?) In fact, if he could save the man's life by doing so, he'd be more likely to be held liable for failing to do so than for making the attempt.

He reiterated his point about liability and said he wasn't willing to risk it.

What I blurted in and said was, "If you want a job without liability, go pick up garbage for a living."

What I thought was, "And if I ever call 911, I hope I get someone else on the other end."

In his defense, he's new to the job, and, as at many agencies, new employees here are given a hefty dose of warnings about liability. And our EMD training preaches staying with the cards, verbatim. It takes quite a while to develop a true sense of when, if ever, to ignore those two messages.

Being successful at this job entails managing liability. That can't be denied. And I am not saying that liability doesn't matter or that policies should be ignored (without extremely compelling reasons) or that this sort of judgment comes without considerable experience. Given the short time this calltaker has been with us, his answer, while wrong in real-world terms, is the answer he should have given.

But this job entails realizing and accepting that you can't avoid all liability. This job is about risk, every time we pick up the phone or key up the radio. Truly accepting the liability, while delivering superlative public service, requires a constant weighing of risk against gain, and, when necessary, falling squarely in the corner of the caller. It means serving the callers' interest ahead of our own. As with romance, parenting or a number of other situations that require selflessness, it is risky. But taking the risk - or, rather, acting despite it - can be the right choice and can carry rich rewards: people saved, disasters averted, lives touched.

Managing Stress

Article taken from Public Safety Communications Magazine February 2006
Written by Tony Harrison, President of Public Safety Group


Stress is unavoidable. For the public safety communications professional, stress is even more pervasive than for others. You are required to work in the middle of the night, holidays, disasters and other times when people lock themselves in their houses. There is no way to eliminate the stress of your job or your home. The key is to find stress management techniques that work for you.

Stress has been defined as our response to anxiety-producing events, our reaction to change and the non-specific response of the body to any demand made on it. No matter what definition you use, stress involves our response to an event. When an event happens, information about that event is directed to our brains from our senses of sight, vision, hearing, touch and smell. Once that information is gathered, our brain must assign meaning to the event. That's when the event becomes stressful or non-stressful.

There are basically two types of stress, positive and negative. Positive stress helps us reach our peak efficiency. Then, once a challenge is met, we relax and enjoy our achievement. An example of positive stress at work is a busy Friday night. We achieve our peak efficiency and do our best work when it is busy, but once the rush is over, we relax and enjoy a job well done.

Negative stress is when we stay geared up or don't relax once a challenge is met. An example of negative stress may be mandatory overtime. The constant work requires us to be geared up all the time, allowing us no time to relax.

Positive and negative stress also occur at home. For example, positive stress at home may involve a busy weekend with the kids, although some people find this an example of negative stress. The important point is that stress is positive when you can relax and enjoy your achievement. It is negative when you stay geared up all the time.

The Fight-of-Flight Response

The fight-or-flight mechanism evolved to save our lives during an immediate physical threat. Today, it can give us an adrenaline high or help us deal with perceived emergencies.

Your body reacts to the meaning your brain has assigned to an event. If you receive a shooting call and your brain perceives it as a threat to your body, your body will react and start the fight-of-flight response. There is no doubt the call is an emergency, but the call does not require a figh-or-flight response for you to respond appropriately.

Another example is when your relief calls in sick, which will require you to work an additional four to eight hours. Many times this will cause you stress and problems at home, but it does not require a fight-or-flight response. Many dispatchers have become adrenaline junkies, starting the fight-or-flight mechanism of their bodies several times a day to deal with emergency calls and new policies of administrators who we feel have no real idea about our job.

When you begin the fight-or-flight response, there are physical changes in your body. Here is a list of physiological changes:

• Hair shafts stand erect.
• Pupils dilate to sharpen vision.
• Breathing tubes open wider for deeper breathing.
• Digestion slows.
• Perspiration increases to keep the body cool.
• Muscles receive more blood, readying the body for vigorous action.
• Blood vessels on surface of skin contract to reduce bleeding.
• Blood sugar increases.
• Blood pressure rises.
• Heart beats faster.

You can see that the body is not designed to do this several times a day. The fight-or-flight response will hamper your ability to dispatch. As your body pumps additional blood to the major muscle groups, it takes blood away from the extremities, including your fingers. Dispatching requires a great amount of manual dexterity, which is reduced during the fight-or-flight response.

Stop

The first stress-management technique for those of us who start the fight-or-flight response for the adrenaline high is to stop when possible. The next time you get an emergency call and you feel the fight-or-flight response kicking in, take a second to stop yourself and remind your brain that it is safe. This may be difficult to do. In the middle of a shooting call, you may feel you don't have time to worry about your brain, because you must react to the call. But you are a master of multitasking. You can take the call while telling your brain that the fight-or-flight response is not needed.

One of the first steps to managing stress is to realize when we are under stress. Many of us constantly feel the effects of positive and negative stress. Because of this, it becomes difficult to realize when we are under too much stress.

Warning

When confronted with extreme amounts of negative stress, our bodies try to warn us. Many times these warnings go unheard by us. The first step in stress management is to recognize when we are under stress. Once we recognize we are under stress, we can employ techniques to fight it. The bodies' stress warnings will be different for each of us, but here are some common warnings:

• Muscle tightness
• Headaches
• Muscle soreness
• Heartburn
• Upset stomach
• Irritability.

You must learn how your body reacts to stress and, when under stress, to employ stress management techniques that work for you. Here are several techniques. Find the ones that work for you.

Change Your Perceptions

One of the most powerful stress management techniques is to look at the meaning your brain assigns to an event and see if the meaning is unrealistic or if you can change that meaning. Stress begins when your brain assigns meaning to an event. If we can change that meaning, we can manage stressful events.

For example, when you drive home today, most of you will confront the following: another driver will do something stupid, pull in front of you or drive slower than you'd like. Your reaction could be to simply relax, knowing that it is no big deal. Or it could be to yell, scream profanities and wave at the person with only one finger. Or your body could react with, "Oh, no! I am going to hit this person."

If the latter is your reaction, it is a good bet your body will start the fight-or-flight response. To reduce stress, we should look at the first two responses. It is possible for us to change our perception of this event. If someone pulls in front of you and no one is hurt, who cares? With this philosophy of "no harm, no foul," your stress levels will stay down. When you get mad, yell and scream, you create stress in your life. Your brain gives the meaning to the event that the other driver was careless or reckless and could have hurt someone. Tell your brain to say it is no big deal. Maybe the person just did not see you. You choose how upset you will be.

Another example: you report to work one day and find your supervisor has written a memorandum that you believe is stupd, unenforceable and worthless. You get angry, your blood pressure increases, your voice rises and there goes another day at work. Why not change the meaning to reduce and manage the stress of the event?

Many times we expect people to do things and be people they cannot. We expect a boss who has never worked in the communications center to understand the work. We expect that boss to make informed, intelligent decisions. We expect family members to be "normal." The problem is these are our expectations. When we change our expectations to be more realistic, we manage the stress in our lives.

Expect bosses to write memorandums from time to time with which we do not agree. If you can convince the boss that the new policy is not workable, do that. If you can't, then you have to live with it.

The great Indian scholar Shanitdeva said, "If there is a way to overcome the suffering, then there is no need to worry. If there is no way to overcome the suffering, then there is no use in worrying." This philosophy can help us work in the communications center. So many times we become stressed about things we have no control over. The next time your boss issues a "stupid" memo, remember this and manage your stress.

The Burden of Perfection

Many of us gladly accept the burden of perfection. We expect ourselves to be the perfect dispatcher, spouse or parent. The problem is the burden of perfection is a no-win situation. It becomes a source of stress. What if we make a mistake at work? Someone could get hurt. What if we make a mistake in raising our children?

We all make mistakes, no matter how good we are. None of us is perfect. Instead of trying to be perfect all the time, why not try to be the best we can and accept mistakes for what they are: mistakes? Make realistic expectations of your performance whether as a dispatcher of as a person.

Deep Breathing

Breathing is an easy stress management technique any dispatcher can learn to use. When we get busy at work or at home, many times our breathing becomes shallow and rapid. Breathing slowly and deeply can reduce your heart rate and your stress. The next time you are feeling stressed, take a second and breathe. Follow the steps below.

• Breathe in through your nose for four seconds.
• Hold for seven seconds.
• Breathe out for eight seconds.
• Repeat three times.

Relax

Our profession requires us to be ready 24 hours a day. Once we come home, many do not have the luxury of relaxing. Children, spouses, family and other significant others demand our attention and time. But it is important that all of us learn how to relax.

"How Can I Help You: Customer Service in Emergency Communications

Article taken from Public Safety Communications Magazine December 2007
Written by Sheila Hanna-Wiles, she works for the SC Highway Patrol and has been an adjunct instructor for APCO institute for seven years.


We usually think about customer service in terms of how quickly we get served at a restaurant or whether a store clerk gives us a hard time when we try to return a piece of clothing that doesn't fit. When we think about good customer service, Walt Disney World and Nordstrom are the two businesses that come most readily to mind. But what does customer service have to do with public safety communications? After all, 911 is a monopoly. But think about it for a minute. Has your agency received any of the following types of complaints?

"The calltaker I spoke with was very rude."
"I got the feeling that the calltaker did not care about my situation."
"The calltaker was very unprofessional."
"Susie did not help me with that three-alarm call."
"The radio dispatcher has an attitude problem."

These complaints may seem vague, but they all deal with the same factor: customer service.

We've heard about customer service, but we may not know the definition or understand how it applies to public safety communications. In fact, a single definition of customer service does not exist. It can be defined as an activity, a performance measurement and/or a philosophy. So customer service:

• Is the ability to provide a service or product in the way that it has been promised;
• Is about treating others as you would like to be treated yourself;
• Is an organization's ability to supply its customers' wants and needs;
• Describes the process of taking care of customers in a positive manner;
• Is any contact between a customer and a company that causes a negative or positive perception by a customer;
• Is a process for providing a competitive advantage and adding benefits in order to maximize the total value to the customer; and
• Is the commitment to providing value added services to external and internal customers and involves attitude, knowledge, technical support and quality of service in a timely manner.

Customer service is the intangible element that goes with the acquisition of goods and services. When you go to the store to buy a loaf of bread, there's an element of customer service that goes along with the purchase. How were you treated? Were you able to easily find what you were looking for? Was the store clean? Were you able to check out quickly? Was the parking lot well lit? None of these questions are related to the quality, freshness or price of the bread that you bought; they are all part of customer service.

When you go to purchase services, many of the same questions apply. If you drop off and pick up your clothes at the dry cleaners, there are certain aspects of service that you are paying for in the price. Were the clothes cleaned properly? Were they free of damage or discoloration? Were they pressed properly and hung neatly, covered with plastic to keep them clean? These are services that you are paying for. But courtesy, being open when needed and convenience also play a big part in our decision to use these services.

Why do people choose not to use a certain store or service? Overwhelmingly, people stop doing business with companies because the customer perceived an attitude of indifference from the company's representative.

The Public Safety Customer

How does this apply to public safety communications? To answer that question, we must first identify who the customer is in public safety communications. Customers can be separated into two categories: internal and external. Internal customers are those people within your organization for whom you provide certain services or products. External customers are those from outside your organization. Let's begin with the obvious external public safety customer, the caller.

The caller is someone who calls the public safety communications agency, requesting some type of assistance or emergency response.

Our emergency responders are another set of customers, encompassing law enforcement, EMS or fire personnel that we dispatch to the callers.

Support personnel are also customers. This group includes personnel from environmental services, utilities, towing, addressing department, emergency management, equipment maintencance, etc.

Yet another customer is our public sector, those organizations that we educate in public safety communications. Public sector customers may include school administrators, students, hospital personnel, church groups, communities, government officials, etc.

Finally, our last customer--the internal public safety customer--consists of the people around us, sitting in the chairs next to us or across the room from us and the people who oversee the operations of the communications center, our co-workers.

Why Customer Service Counts

By now you may be thinking that these customers don't have a choice when it comes to public safety services. So is it even relevant if they receive good or bad customer service? The answer: It is absolutley relevant.

Public safety agencies are typically supported by government funding, which comes from property taxes, local sales taxes and other sources of government income. The public, through the payment of taxes, provides the income by which public safety services are provided. When a caller says, "I pay your salary!" that's essentially a correct statement.

It's true that citizens typically don't have a choice when it comes to public safety services. They cannot call another law enforcement agency, ambulance service or fire department if they're dissatisfied with local service. But what they can do is call the local governing body and the media, form opposition groups, etc. They can refuse a grant increase or vote down a bond issue to fund a new PSAP or a new radio or CAD system. They can bring lawsuits and other legal action, and it will affect the crime level and quality of life in the community if they refuse to call and report crimes.

Not only do citizens have the power to make important decisions that affect the telecommunicator's job, but emergency responders themselves have power. If they work for a separate agency dispatched by a consolidated PSAP, they may refuse to work with a PSAP that provides poor service and choose another source for dispatching.

Our co-workers can file grievances or terminate us.

The public sector can follow the same path as the callers. The support personnel can follow the same path as the emergency responders.

Customers are the most important aspect to any public safety agency. Customers are not dependent on us; we are dependent on them. Customers are not interruptions to our work; they are the purpose of it. We are not doing customers a favor by serving them; we are fulfilling our obligation by doing so. Customers are not outsiders to our business, they are part of it.

All of our customers depend on us to do a job, and we must perform that job to the best of our ability or be prepared to handle the consequences mentioned above. The bottom line: Our customer service skills will reflect stability in our jobs. Remember, no customers equals no business and no employees.

Exceptional Customer Service

Exceptional customer service consists of many factors: assurance, empathy, responsiveness, attitude, quality, problem-solving and listening skills. You must assure the customer that you possess the knowledge and skills needed to perform your job properly. To assure confidence to the customer, you must know the policies and procedures set forth by your agency. Lack of knowledge and confidence wil leave your customer feeling that you don't know what you're doing. You must understand and listen to the callers' specific needs and concerns. Let the caller know that they have your undivided attention and what they have to say is important to you. Listening skills and problem-solving skills will show the customer that you are competent and trustworthy. If you don't possess these skills, the customer will wonder if they truly got the correct response.

We must show a willingness to help our customers and provide prompt service. Placing a caller on hold for a long period of time will indicate that you're not interested in them or that you're having difficulty. Letting the caller know what's going on and the reason for the delay will instill a more positive impression. Attitude is like a virus. If you display a good attitude, then your customer will end the call in a positive manner specifically because of your good attitude. If you display a bad attitude, then your customer will end the call in a negative manner again specifically because of your bad attitude.

Customers have three expectations about what will happen when they call for public safety assistance. They expect to: 1) talk with a trained and knowledgeable professional; 2) be treated with respect and courtesy and 3) talk with someone in authority.

There is nothing as important in calltaking or dispatching than making the customer feel good about their contact with your agency. The entire department's image is formed by the person who answers the phone or dispatches on the radio. The way they talk and ask questions, the way they solve the problems and the customer's perception of service virtually establish the customer's entire feeling about the department.

How many times have you heard from a family member or friend, "It's not what you said, it's how you said it."? How true! Maybe more so with telecommunicators who are heard but never seen. When you are not face to face with people, they tend to make visual images of you, judging you by the tone of your voice. Your actual spoken words are not as important as the tone in which you use them. A short "yeah," click of the mic or "all right" can mean many things depending on how you articulate them. Two different telecommunicators saying the exact same thing but in different tones come across with totally different messages. Like the police officer calling out on a routine traffic stop who screams, making you think he's in a full-blown pursuit, tone of voice can have an effect on all of us. Tone of voice is probably the most important factor when dealing with difficult callers. Changing your tone and changing the way you phrase your words can make or break a conversation with an already upset caller.

When you start to deal with someone who is upset, you must first deal with the emotions. The facts don't make a difference to someone who's upset, and explaining your position or the agency's position won't even begin to make a dent in the situation. You must deal with the caller's emotions. Here are some key phrases that will help you when dealing with customers:

• I understand.
• I'm sorry.
• Thank you.
• You're welcome.
• I can help you...
• I understand that you are frightened and upset, but (next question)...
• Please don't curse. I need to know...
• My supervisor can help you.
• Can you hold for a moment so I can...?
• I don't know, but I can find out.
• Let me help you.

Say "A locksmith can help you..." or "Public Works handles that" rather than "We don't do that." Say, "Let me give you that telephone number" rather than "You have to call..." Always emphasize the help that's available, not the assistance that you cannot provide.

Here are a few trigger phrases that you need to avoid because they tend to enrage customers--whether or not they were already upset:

• "I'm sorry, but that's not our policy."
• "It's against the rules."
• "That isn't my department's responsibility."
• "We've never done it that way."
• "You have to calm down or I won't help you."

Something that should be considered on every call is that each customer is unique. Some may be more intelligent than others. Cultural background or beliefs will affect how a customer responds to you. A customer's moral values may not match yours. The age and life experiences of a customer are all factors to consider when trying to achieve excellence in customer service.

A customer will not accept someone being too authoritative or someone preaching or losing their temper and yelling. You are the public safety professional. It's your job to listen to the customer, show empathy, provide the customer with feedback and, most importantly, follow the Golden Rule: "Treat others as you want to be treated."

Customer service is part of being a telecommunicator, and it involves more than just answering the phone. Customers expect more from emergency services due to several influences. First, it is unthinkable that there would be anything but the best in emergency services. Second, television and movies have created expectations. And third, the customer of emergency services may be in a panic situation, not really knowing what they want, except a fix for their problem.

Basics to Better Serve Your Customers

A "customer service star" typically exhibits certain characteristics. To begin with, they focus on the customer rather than the situation. They also:

• Set personal standards that exceed customer expectations.
• View work as a show.
• Create mutually cooperative relationships with customers, especially internal customers.
• Smile a lot when talking to customers. (Smiles really do get transmitted over the phone line and radio frequencies.)
• Think of themselves as professional customer service personnel. It works. Self image is important to projecting a caring image.
• Remember that everyone they contact is a customer and that, in turn, they are a customer to others.
• Recognize that the customer is always right, but so are they. The trick is to get the two as close together as possible.
• Acknowledge that good customer service is a cycle. Having a good attitude toward customers breeds good feedback from customers, which feeds your good attitude, which breeds more good feedback, which feeds your attitude.
• Remember that they cannot please everyone. Don't let a customer service failure get you down.

These characteristics take time and energy to adopt, but they do work.

Customer Complaints

If a customer's expectations are not met, only one out of 10 will complain to the agency. So if a manager gets 10 similar complaints in a week, there were probably a hundred or more total incidents during that week. Whether or not the customer complains to the agency, and even if the customer is eventually satisfied, they may still tell people how they were initially treated, repeating the complaint to others. Therefore, it's prudent to take a practical approach to solving customer problems and resolving customer complaints before they ever happen.

Dissatisfield customers usually do two things. They may go elsewhere for the same products or services if possible, and they tend to tell everyone and anyone who will listen about how they were treated. Satisfied customers will tell seven people. Dissatisfied people will tell 28. Those who still have to use the service or products (no choice) tend to tell many more about their unpleasant experiences.

When customers complain, what do they expect will happen? Many want the person responsible to be disciplined -- or even fired. Others want special privileges or some type of special treatment. Some look for an apology only.

The customer is looking at things from their point of view. Some customers may not have all of the information that they need to be correct, but perception is reality. In their minds, they are right.

Always shoot for the satisfied customer! Remember that customer service is very important. Every agency should demand excellent customer service from its employees so that customers will return and for job stability. No customer equals no business and no employees.