Call Takers
Some dispatch centers are staffed with personnel who serve as call takers. Their sole job is the answer the phones, gather the essential information, then pass the information on to the dispatcher who will, in turn, send to appropriate agencies. Sometimes the call information is routed to multiple dispatchers, each dispatching one service provider (e.g., police – fire – EMS).
The call taker model, while efficient, can have some inherent challenges. There is always the possibility of multiple call takers receiving multiple 9-1-1 calls about the same incident. If the call takers know that one of their associates is taking an incoming call about an emergency, they may simply confirm the address with the caller and tell them responders are on the way. The problem with this is the quantity and quality of information gathered by each caller can be very different. The first call taker might be able to gather very little information from a distressed caller. A subsequent caller (to another call taker) might offer much more information of higher quality but that caller was cut off.
Dispatch training and priorities
Some emergency response agencies may operate their own dispatcher center and not share dispatching services with other agencies. Many dispatch centers, however, serve many agencies. Many of those are under the control of police or sheriff departments. Fundamentally, it shouldn’t matter whose control dispatch falls under so long as the quality of service for all agencies served is high. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
In some jurisdictions the priority for dispatcher training and job performance is slanted in the direction of the agency that controls the dispatch center. To some degree this is understandable. The dispatcher is going to give deference to the agency that signs their paycheck. A problem can arise when a dispatch center becomes unresponsive to the needs of other agencies they dispatch for. Dispatching for fire and dispatching for police, for example, are different.
Incident scene communications support
In a properly staffed, highly functioning communication center a dispatcher would be assigned to handle the radio communications for a critical incident and that would be their sole responsibility. Where this happens – and it does happen for those who have not benefited from this design – the dispatcher serves as a scribe and a second set of ears for the incident commander. This can be a huge asset to a commander. For starters, the dispatcher is in a lower stress environment because they are physically located in a controlled environment that is not dynamically changing (like an emergency scene is).
Dispatchers often wear radio headsets that allow them to filter out extraneous noise so they can concentrate on the radio traffic they are monitoring. A dispatcher can have ready access to resource information like weather and traffic condition reports. If they have access to the Internet they can quickly find answers to questions for the commander.
ETNs and PAR checks
Two support tasks a dispatcher can perform that can be very helpful to emergency responders are Elapsed Time Notifications (ETNs) and Personnel Accountability Reports (PARs). These tasks can be performed by the commander or a command team member as well. Sometimes those additional personnel are not readily available on an emergency scene. This is where the dispatcher can really help out.
An ETN is an announcement, over the radio, for all operational personnel to hear (which means it might have to be announced multiple times on multiple channels so everyone does hear it) of the time that has elapsed at an emergency. This is critical to the formation and maintenance of situational awareness for two reasons. First, responders need to form expectations of outcomes. This is one of the steps in the decision making process. One of those expectations is HOW LONG should it take for personnel to complete tasks. An ETN helps a commander keep track of the passage of time and can benchmark the time passage to the process of assignments.
Second, Level 3 Situational Awareness is formed by making accurate predications of future events (beyond company-level performance of tasks). Think of company-level performance of tasks as scenes in a movie. Think of Level 3 Situational Awareness as figuring out how the entire movie is going to end. In most dynamically changing environments responders have a finite time to complete tasks or the situation may overrun them (e.g., extinguish the fire and get out before the building collapses).
The PAR check is a formal process of accounting for all personnel operating at an emergency scene. The process can be conducted by the dispatcher and the content of the report affirmed by the commander as companies report in, or vice versa. Mayday!
A dispatcher is often in a better environment to hear a distress message and gather critical information from at-risk responders.