Of all the skills necessary to be a successful 911 dispatcher — understanding “10 codes,” staying calm in chaotic situations and knowing Allen County’s geography — one stands out.
“You have to be able to listen with two ears,” said Karen Kimball, assistant director of the Allen County 911 Communications Center.
There’s a distinct difference between listening and hearing, Kimball explained.
Dispatchers frequently must converse simultaneously with whoever is calling 911 for emergency service and the appropriate emergency crews, such as law enforcement, firefighters or ambulance personnel.
“And there are times that both sides may be talking at once,” Kimball said. “You have to keep track of what both are saying.”
And with dispatchers wired in to as many as 13 Allen County agencies at the same time, a dispatcher occasionally has to keep straight as to who is saying what.
“The ability to multitask is definitely a must,” Kimball said.
“It’s not a job for everybody,” added Roberta Ellis, another dispatcher at the communications center.
The communications hub for emergency services in Allen County recently capped its first year online, having handled more than 55,000 calls in all — an average of 150 a day. Of those 55,000 calls, 4,800 came in through the emergency line. Those calls resulted in 32,000 calls for service, according to figures provided by the communications center.
BECOMING A full-time dispatcher — officially, they’re known as communications officers — takes at least 12 weeks to ensure employees can respond correctly to most any type of call.
The first four weeks cover the basics, such as learning the 10-codes, the centerpiece of communications among all emergency personnel. An injury accident, for example, is a 10-48; a domestic disturbance is a 10-97.
“You have to understand the language,” said Ellis, who teaches the opening four-week training session.
New employees also are drilled on fundamental procedures, such as answering the phone properly, speaking phonetically and enunciating properly so that information can be delivered quickly and accurately and learning to stay calm if a caller is frantic.
The dispatcher must also determine quickly who should be summoned in emergency calls, be it police, fire or ambulance personnel.
“The policies are in black and white, but you could be here 100 years and not know everything you have to know to respond to any kind of call,” Ellis said. Nine dispatchers are on staff now, with one vacancy.
THE SECOND session, taught by Lee Roberts, another communications officer, covers radios and geography.
Communicating with 13 agencies requires more than just passing knowledge of radios and computers, Ellis said.
“All of our paging with responders is done with radios,” she said.
Likewise, dispatchers must know in an instant all of Allen County’s geography, including its rural roads, plus every city street from every local community. More than passing knowledge of surrounding counties also is important.
Dispatchers even are tested on unofficial names for various landmarks. For example, a map can quickly point out Old U.S. 169 between Iola and Humboldt, but few if any identify Sinclair Curve or Elm’s Corner near Moran (both of which carried those nicknames long before 911 mapping).
THE THIRD session, taught by Kimball, covers “the hard stuff,” such as being able to send and receive data to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), Allen County’s window to the outside world of information.
Information from NCIC is relayed to officers handling everything from routine traffic stops to murder investigations.
In addition to being certified to handle NCIC data, communications officers also must earn certification with Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) within six months of their hiring.
Each of the nine dispatchers in Allen County also has various specialties.
For example, Ellis has received extra training on hostage negotiations. Another may specialize on sending and receiving information on sex crimes.
The county also undergoes quality assurance checks, in which dispatchers’ responses are recorded and critiqued.
At the center of their duties is interaction with the public, Ellis noted, and usually under less than ideal circumstances.
To assist with medical calls, dispatchers rely on an EMD protocol booklet, that covers dozens of potential medical crises.
The booklet features a series of questions the dispatchers must ask while obtaining information.
“There may be times when the caller gets frustrated that we’re asking these questions, but it’s important to get them answered so that we can get the proper information to our crews who respond,” Ellis said.
Having the booklet, as well as reams of other written policies on hand, “eliminates any type of guesswork,” Kimball added.
Dispatchers also are schooled on National Incident Management System (NIMS) policies regarding natural disasters, and they soon will begin courses to learn to speak and understand Spanish. They also must be certified to administer first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) themselves.
“Some of our dispatchers are EMTs (emergency medical technicians) and know how to respond in medical emergencies,” Ellis said.
DISPATCH SERVICES have been under the county’s umbrella since January 2010. Before then, dispatchers were Iola city employees working through the Iola Police Department.
The move to county control came about through a mutual agreement between the city and county, with the endorsement of Allen County’s 911 Advisory Committee.
The changeover coincided with the opening of the Allen County Critical Response Center at 410 N. State St. The county received grants paying a combined $473,991 to move the dispatch center and pay for ongoing upgrades.
There, communications officers are equipped with a pair of state-of-the-air work stations connected to a wall of computer monitors and data information systems. Two dispatchers can work comfortably side by side, with a third work station available if a high volume of calls is coming in, say for example, during threatening weather.
The system is designed for user-friendly operations. Dispatchers send and receive information with just a few mouse clicks.
Angie Murphy, director of the center, said the dispatchers took to the new system quickly.
The system also allows dispatchers to identify the source of each call the center receives, which is vitally important with cell phones — roughly two thirds of the 4,800 911 calls came from cell phones.
“The technology is getting better,” Kimball said, recalling one instance when she received a call from a cell phone regarding a domestic disturbance. The caller did not reveal the address, although Kimball was able to nearly pinpoint the source within seconds, using the triangulation method by measuring the phone’s signal strength with surrounding cell phone towers.
“We were two houses off,” Kimball said. “The officers could hear the yelling when they arrived at the scene, so they knew where to go.”
MURPHY SAID cooperation with each of Allen County’s emergency personnel was paramount to making the 911 center a success.
“There’s no way this could work without their involvement,” Murphy said said, from the citizens of Allen County to emergency responders, city and county officials and the 911 Advisory Board. “We’re grateful for their help and cooperation.”
