Question for Law Enforcement Officers. Civilian Dispatchers - what's your opinion of them?

Question

For those who work in law enforcement (police, sheriff, etc) who have civilian dispatchers, not fellow officers, what do you think of them? Are they helpful, harmful, do you like them, dislike them. What is your honest impression of them?

Answer 1

They are just like cops (or any other group). Some suck, some are fantastic, most are okay.

Answer 2

As for me I'm a former Civilian Dispatcher for a Sheriff's Department for 11 years which I have left that job.  When I first started I was on my second day of training.  I was called into Dispatch I didn't know what to log down and never talked on the radio had to learn the Alpha-numeric names.  At that time by brother was Sgt. and he sit with me in the radio room telling me what to do and what to log down.  I wasn't even trained to answer 911 calls as to what to say and what information I needed from the caller.  But I learned very fast and through the years learned different techniques on answering 911 calls and radio calls.  I have to agree with some of the officers,  Dispatchers are the Officers lifeline because when they are on traffic stops or any incident.  Dispatchers are concerned the Officer's safety and when you as for their status and no response, we would send another Officer to check on the Officer safety.  Some people don't really understand what Dispatcher's go through when their under pressure and when at  times that all h**l's break loose.  Some dispatcher's handle the situation calmly and some don't.  Where I worked we (Dispatcher's) were under paid and the elected officials believed that the Trash Collector's desereved a pay raise.  When your a Dispatcher, you have to go through 80 hours of training which included role playing as dispatchers, first aid, fire, ems and TTY (Deaf).  Another training was 1 week in how to run vehicle registration, driver license and second part was how to enter vehicles, people, articles into the National and State database.  One thing I like to say is that there are some Officers know what a Dispatcher goes through in a day and would say thank you for understanding.  Some Dispatchers are helpful and compansionate when dealing with citizens when it's anon-emergency and emergency call.

Answer 3

At first I was against having civilian dispatchers.  I was thinking that they would not have a proper understanding or appreciation of the way things really were out on the street.  I think it's a common bias that most officers have and we see it also towards civilians who act as crime analysts and other such positions.

Now, after working with them for a number of years, I see that perhaps my bias was misplaced.  While we do have good and bad dispatchers I really haven't seen much of a drop in service.  Oddly enough, one of our best dispatchers has never served in uniform while at the same time, there is one dispatcher that makes me shutter every time he's on duty and he served for almost 20 years as a uniform member.  

Once I put my bias' aside I realized that it's all a matter of capabilities and you get good and bad no matter what their background.

Answer 4

I am a police Sgt. in Texas.  We have civilian dispatchers and I think they are great!  We have a high turn-over rate because they are not paid very well.  However, every now and then we get a dispatcher that really cares about the people they talk to on the 911 console, and they take a real interest in the safety of the officers that they dispatch to calls in our city.  I think it is great that we have dispatchers that are NOT police officers.  They are somewhat of a "life-line" for us on the streets.  It is definitely an "acquired talent" to be an effective dispatcher.  If you are one of them............keep it up!!

Answer 5

We have civilian dispatchers and I love them.  They are my lifeline, they know it, and they go the extra mile whenever they can.  

But, as in all jobs, there are the ones that are bad.  Those I can do without.

Answer 6

A good one will save your life. A bad one isn't worth being around. Most that I have worked with are dedicated, hard working and a blast at a good party.