Dispatcher: Challenging Calls

It is very important to understand that there is no such thing as a routine dispatch call. The attitude that something is routine leads to complacency, and complacency is the enemy of public safety in general and officer safety specifically. 

A call, no matter how minor it may seem at first, can turn into a disaster within seconds. One of the reasons the public safety profession is so stressful is that you must be ready for the worst to happen at any second. This hyper-vigilance and hyper-preparation can be exhausting, but they are necessary to provide effective service and intervention.

This course will help dispatchers understand that each caller may have a different definition of the word “crisis.” In general, a crisis is defined as any serious interruption in a person’s usual steady state that results in emotional and psychological turmoil. It is sudden, arbitrary, and unpredictable and can occur without warning to anyone at any time. 

Public safety’s goal is to provide crisis intervention. Despite what a dispatcher may think is a crisis, if a caller considers it to be a crisis, their body will react as if it IS a crisis. This training will help the dispatcher understand why a caller’s breathing has increased and why the caller may need the same sentence repeated several times, in different ways, until the caller understands what is being asked of them.

This training will deal with several types of crisis calls:

• Suicidal calls
• Domestic violence calls
• Mentally impaired calls
• Juvenile calls
• Language barrier calls