The dispatchers’ perspective – 9-1-1 communicators speak

They’re called the first first responders. In the public safety trenches, 9-1-1 call takers and dispatchers are on the front lines – the ones who first hear about our emergencies. They are that voice that calms and reassures us that help is on the way when we need it. Yet, it’s only recently that we’ve begin to consider the effects that being on the front lines of our daily emergencies has on their mental health.

In June 2023, FirstNet sat down with dispatchers and call takers at the Seattle 9-1-1 Center, now the Community Safety Communications Center, for a discussion about the challenges – and the rewards – of a job in public safety. Here’s what they had to say. 

Kevin Hauck

Call taker, Radio dispatcher, and Communications Training Officer
Seattle 9-1-1 CSCC

Why do you work for 9-1-1?

“From a young age, I always wanted to do something that felt meaningful and where I could make a difference. I always had a passion for helping people. At my very first job at a little local grocery store, EMTs would come in to get their groceries. I’d hear some of their stories and just really felt interested in what they do. Eventually I was able to go through the training and got a job doing that. I absolutely loved it. I got cross-trained for dispatching them as well. After moving to the Pacific Northwest, I took a break for a while…I could tell something was missing. When I saw the position at CSCC for police dispatchers, it just felt like a perfect fit.

Rewards

“Training new call takers is exciting when they're able to blossom and start handling things on their own. On the call-taking side, when we can assist someone or stay on the phone with them when they're having a really, really bad experience or… waiting with them until police officers come or just giving them information they need where they're appreciative and it makes a difference for them is really rewarding.”

“On the radio side of things, when we're able to broadcast updates to the officers, give them the information they need to save someone's life or get a really dangerous person off the street, it's a really rewarding feeling.”

Stressors

“We deal with a lot of callers who are in a crisis mentally, as well as callers who have a disdain for police, or 9-1-1. That can lead to us being yelled at, cursed at and threatened, or having our families threatened, sometimes quite vividly. That can be hard to hear day-to-day.”

“We have a desire to give people what they need. If we don't have an officer available to respond right away, there is that emotional feeling for me of letting the caller down.”

“As an EMT, we would go back to the same hospitals where we delivered patients previously and we could hear how things turned out for them… We had a lot of people we kept in contact with, and there was the ability to get closure. Here, it's not always as easy to find out what happens, especially when we are so invested in some of these calls. We're hearing the screams, the cries for help. We're hearing the disturbances happen in real time. We're invested. And when officers arrive, we just hang up the phone…That can be a little jarring.”

How do you relieve stress?

“I love trying new hobbies. I will do anything from building with LEGOs, to taking hikes, to reading books. A lot of times I like to read books by myself or I'll go to a bookstore or a library and just kind of find a little quiet corner and read there. I'll just try new and different things to see what works best. Staying physical is very important, especially during our breaks. I think it's important to take walks around the parking lot or through the town to go get a cup of coffee. And then on my days off, at least a couple of times a month, I try to go hiking, see some of the nice sights. Washington is beautiful for its hikes and some of the scenic views.

Jayce Cuny

Dispatcher – Call Taker and Radio Dispatcher
Seattle 9-1-1 CSCC

Why do you work for 9-1-1?

“I started my 9-1-1 career a little over 16 years ago in Florida.  It was not something that ever really appealed to me because I didn't think I had the fortitude for it. It always seemed so incredibly stressful. But I applied because I was young and it was an available job making good money. And we started training. Within about 3 days into training, it just clicked. I knew this was the job for me. As I progressed further, it cemented that this was the job I wanted to do seemingly for the rest of my life. And here we are 16 years later.”

Rewards

“Obviously, there was the aspect of helping people. That constant contact with the citizens, wherever you're working. And the sense of accomplishment when you have a good call with someone, when you feel like you've assisted them in some way. Even if it’s just telling them, ‘OK, we'll have an officer come talk to you.’ …And then as you get further into it, when you start seeing outcomes of calls, when you start seeing things evolve and come to a good conclusion, there's also that gratification behind it.”

“What I also really just love about it is that no day is the same. You come into work and anything could happen… And I really thrived on that kind of environment where anything could happen and I had to be prepared for it.”

Stressors

“One of the key stressors about this job when you're dealing with citizens is that for someone calling 9-1-1, it's the worst day of their life… Whether we see it as a big emergency or not because…for them it is an emergency. So there is that almost immediate interaction with someone who is escalated, who is heightened, who is panicked, who is upset, angry, crying. And that definitely can and does take a toll on your mental health. Hearing people at their worst all the time can have a tendency to pull you down.

“On top of all that, it's a very sedentary job. We work 8, sometimes 12, hours a day. We have the ability to stand up at our desk, our desks move. But you're still in one position. There's not a lot of opportunity to get up and move around and shake off physically whatever you've got going on. So there's that to deal with. Headaches are common in this job. I get a headache almost every day and it's been a long process to learn how to work through that and continue to be as effective as I can.”

How do you relieve stress?

Take a mental break and talk to a supervisor.

Miranda Swineford

Dispatcher and Call Screener
Seattle 9-1-1 CSCC

Why do you work for 9-1-1?

“I come from a very long line of public servants. Both of my dad’s parents were in the Marines and my mom’s father was a firefighter. And then both my parents were police officers and they actually met on the job.”

Rewards

“I like being the person who solves the problems or at least gets them on the track to solving the problems. It’s one of the best parts about answering the non-emergency line, which is typically not a fun line to answer. One of the best parts is just being able to walk people through from their problem of ‘someone broke my window and stole my purse’ to here’s all the things you need to do to get that on the mend. I enjoy that very much. I enjoy feeling a sense of ownership and a sense of contribution to the community and the public safety… That's important to me.”

Stressors

“There's kind of a twofold level of stress that I deal with typically with this job as a call taker or as a dispatcher. And it's worse on the call taking side. On the base level, this is my job and I have a certain set of requirements. I need to ask these questions. I need to do these actions. And if they don't happen, and something bad happens… that is on me. I could get a bad grade on the quality assurance scale. I could get in trouble. And I could cause someone to actually be harmed if I don't do enough. So the stakes are very high.”

“Then there's the stress that comes from the calls where there is an impact on you. You’ve gotten that secondary trauma when you hear something terrible that's happened to somebody else. Sometimes…the caller's narrating something that just happened. But a lot of times…you hear the yelling, screaming, shouting, fighting. That's the kind of stuff that heightens your stress level and can have a lasting impact on you.”

How do you relieve stress?

“I’m on the peer support team. I'm one of the people who supports outward a lot of the time. Before I was on it, I used it quite a bit. The person who trained me was in peer support. So I already had a relationship with her and I would just say, ‘I need to talk about this.’… Having a person that you can say, ‘I need assistance right now,’ and go off the floor and take that time is a good supportive environment.”

Audrey Washington

Call Taker
Seattle 9-1-1 CSCC

Why do you work for 9-1-1?

“I come from a family of first responders. My husband works for the county, my son works for state patrol, and my late father-in-law worked for Seattle Police for over 30 years. And he's the one who actually drew me to this job by asking if I wanted to apply. That's how I got on as a call taker.”

Rewards

“I like helping people in their time of need – being able to bring calm to chaos. That's what I really like to do. And just working with people.”

“They don't have any other place to go. They're at their lowest point. And you can help bring them up. And that is just very rewarding to be able to help people find the resources they need. And be able to find the answer to whatever their problem is at that moment.”

Stressors

“One of the most stressful things is dealing with people when they're in their most escalated state. When they're not willing or able to communicate what they need or where they are. The biggest thing for us as a call taker is we need that address. If they can't give it to us, we have other resources we can use to try to get it. But if that's not available or if they can't communicate with us and they're just in that heightened state of, ‘Get here now,’ it's really stressful to try to deal with that and try to use your resources and extract that information from them, as well. That's the most stressful.”

How do you relieve stress?

“Being aware of my own tendencies. When you're a little more agitated or if you're nervous, or if you're just overwhelmed, tapping into that and taking the self-care that is needed for myself. I try to do that on a regular basis. I definitely try to encourage my co-workers to do the same. It’s just a matter of using my downtime for down time. I can't say that I'm always perfect at it, but I try.

“I can't help anyone else if I don't take care of me. I just make sure I do the necessary things I need to do so once I step foot on the floor, I’m ready to go. And… if you need to do something else and step off the floor – maybe you need to do something different for that day – they’ll adjust the staff, as needed, to help to support you.”