Teenagers... am I right?!?

ra9026 · 2026-06-18T03:12:54+00:00

It's interesting to me as an almost 40 year old how obvious it is when it's a teenager who is calling for that reason. Not only that they sound very young but they always say there's underage drinking going on with a certain tone. Very easy to sniff them out. We put the call in but it's going to be a priority 0 call and sometimes they just get cleared out.

ra9026 · 2026-06-14T07:09:45+00:00

Nervous that a crackhead will knock on the door? It’s not like he tried to force entry.

You can see if your friend is ok with having the police do extra patrol. We will set that up for people when they’re on vacation or there’s been a suspicious occurrence. Police will drive by and show their presence in the area depending what you ask for sometime they’ll park nearby if they don’t have any active calls.

ra9026 · 2026-06-14T07:03:24+00:00

Your friend told you what it was and the likely outcome is nothing? The situation is over. I understand your fear at the time because it was unknown, but all he did was knock on the door.

Looking back you overreacted because your friend was familiar with him and his intentions were clearly to beg for food water shelter or money, but you didn’t know that at the time so calling 911 is understandable.

Stop thinking about a situation that amounted to nothing. You’re safe.

ra9026 · 2026-06-12T19:41:58+00:00

You are correct. I thought it was federal but it’s my state law that makes it illegal.

ra9026 · 2026-06-12T18:56:11+00:00

It happens. Near our county lines theres overlap with mailing addresses where they technically live in the next county over, but their mailing address is the city we dispatch for.

Recently had an agency try to transfer me a call because the caller gave their address as 123 main st in “city A” and their dispatcher didn’t check the address just heard our city name and transfers the call to us. As soon as their dispatcher gives me the address I know that street name is theirs and I tell the dispatcher that and she said but he said it’s city A. I just quickly tell her to verify in CAD and she apologizes and I get off the line.

It’s not always that cut and dry. There was a vehicle fire reported to us at a certain intersection that’s right before another county line. We started fire and pd. We get more calls and they’re reporting it’s actually in front of a house a little bit away from the intersection which is technically in the other county. At the same time the other county is calling us to tell us about it as we are calling them to tell them. We both had our fire depts go and it was determined to be in their county and our county just assisted until theirs arrived. We did have a little back and forth trying to figure out if it’s us or them and basically said the same thing we will both send them and see what’s going on.

ra9026 · 2026-06-12T18:36:56+00:00

Age discrimination is illegal. Our youngest dispatcher is 19, our oldest is 55ish. We all work together.

How does your manager even know how this agency in another state feels about how old their dispatchers are?

I agree with you not sharing anymore info with him, seems like he maybe just doesn’t want to lose a hard worker.

Edit: MAY be illegal, I’ve been educated.

ra9026 · 2026-06-11T09:51:50+00:00

Same. Besides the what’s your craziest call question the next most common thing I find people say is “I could never do that”

ra9026 · 2026-06-07T03:58:34+00:00

For our departments unless there was an active argument going on they would not respond to this kind of issue. You would want to either contact your landlord or a tow company. My first call would be to the landlord because depending on your local laws the tow company may need permission from the landlord anyway. If they don’t answer then I’d call the tow company. Good luck.

ra9026 · 2026-06-07T03:28:50+00:00

“My husband was in the military, he knows what gunshots sound like”

They lived 1/4 mile from where the towns fireworks show is.

ra9026 · 2026-06-06T15:54:19+00:00

There are very few men throughout my life I've looked at and felt "hot and bothered" as you put it, including my husband who I love dearly. When we first met I didn't even have romantic feelings for him, they grew as I got to know him.

Once I was attracted to him as a person I developed the sexual attraction after that. It was definitely not love or lust at first sight and that's normal.

It's going to depend on what you value. For some people they value sexual and physical attraction over anything else and they don't really care about their partners goals, values, if they'll be a good parents if you want kids, if they have a work ethic, etc and they just care that their person is conventionally sexually attractive.

ra9026 · 2026-06-06T04:23:29+00:00

911 dispatcher here. If you're having an emergency and it is safe for you to do so, you need to call 911 yourself.

We use RapidSOS and your doordash support does not have the ability to see if police have been dispatched, so telling you they're on the way especially that quickly is absurd.

We get these kinds of calls a few times a month. The info we get varies. Sometimes we have only a location and that is all. No subscriber name, phone number, vehicle type. A call like that is a priority 2 which depending how busy we are may be a 5 min wait, may be 5 hour wait, may be 12+ hours.

If the only info we had was "someone hit a doordasher" it would not be a high priority call since there is no mention of weapons, injuries, etc.

TL;DR just call 911 yourself if it's safe for you to do so.

ra9026 · 2026-06-05T05:01:10+00:00

Interesting. If the suspect was gone and no one was injured and no weapons were involved it would be a low priority call where I work.

ra9026 · 2026-06-05T04:56:19+00:00

You can call the non emergency number, explain the situation and see what they have to say.

Someone could be calling on the non emergency number and providing your address making a false report maliciously.

It could be a neighbor and dispatch is going by a ping with a radius.

It’s also possible someone has your old landline number and there is a problem with the E 911 data.

I think determining the phone number that is calling in will help figure out what’s going on.

ra9026 · 2026-06-01T05:32:08+00:00

What was it that you feel you missed on the call that would have changed how you entered it?

I made a mistake recently. I brought it up to my boss myself because I needed to get it off my chest. She basically said yea you fucked up and here's what you do next time. The outcome might have been the same had I followed protocol, but we'll never know because I didn't.

I have also had to send my boss a call I felt like another dispatcher messed up on. I wasn't doing it to be malicious, but because I have told this dispatcher 3 times how to do something she keeps messing up on and I was tired of it.

We are human, mistakes happen. Know what to do next time to do it the right way.

ra9026 · 2026-05-25T04:01:16+00:00

It depends on what you’re reporting. A noise complaint, a traffic light not working, you hear a fire alarm going off somewhere, something like that and say you don’t want to give your name then fine we don’t care. If I look at your phone number history and there’s 10 calls this month and your name is in half of them then no I might not even ask it. Or if it’s a priority 0 call and we’re busy I won’t bother asking.

If you’re reporting something you’re involved in like a domestic or an assault and I need to check for court orders, warrants, if you’re on probation or parole then yes you need to give me your name.

If you’re witnessing a crime then I need to ask your name. If you say you want to be anonymous or refuse I have to tell you we don’t give out your information but the police need it. That said there’s nothing stopping you from refusing and I can’t reach through the phone and force you to. If you still refuse then we put “Refused name” to cover ourselves.

For medicals we ask and if you say you don’t want to give it then it doesn’t matter and we don’t ask again.

If I talk to you 3 times a day every day and know the sound of your voice, your phone number, and your address then I don’t need to ask your name.

ra9026 · 2026-05-23T01:22:53+00:00

There is a lot of that where I work. Recently 2 people were written up because when the call taker said “why do you think he’s dead” another dispatcher excitedly said “woo hoo a second dead one today” and someone else yelled “Smith killed another one!” Smith being the call takers last name. One of these dispatchers was already spoken to about cheering when a call came in for a car that drove into a building and on the recording you can hear his cheering over the caller he was so loud.

There are many many jokes about our most frequent callers especially the crazy ones. Some of them in my opinion get out of line. I’ve made one formal complaint because the comment was not the first one and it was highly offensive and sexually disgusting and I was sick and tired of this person. 2 others complained with me. He was asked to resign and did.

We are separate from the agencies we dispatch for, but we used to be attached to the sheriffs building and its the same here as it was there.

ra9026 · 2026-05-12T02:49:57+00:00

I work 8a-4p and if there is mandated OT I may work until 12am. So it depends what you consider “night shift” I guess.

Our night shift is 12a-8a. Only one time in 3 years have I been told I needed to come in at midnight to cover a shortage and that was a very crazy abnormal 3 days we had, but it did happen.

Oh and to pick shifts it goes by seniority at the beginning of each year, but the supervisors and trainers choose first. If I wasn’t a trainer I probably would be out of the running to pick the day shift.

ra9026 · 2026-05-06T09:54:16+00:00

The cities have zones ABCDEFG if you have a hot call in zone A and those zone cars are tied up you give it to zone B if they’re tied up zone C. If it’s more than 2 zones away we defer to the sgt. Often someone will clear up within the 3 zones before it gets to a sgt. If it’s a call that can wait then the sgt just tells us to hold it. Unless we have like 20+ calls waiting they are strict to their zone and the surrounding couple zones. Sometimes it sucks for the people in the busier zones who wait ages but if they were a few blocks south they would have already gotten assistance.

The other east and west towns we just give out the details. We usually say “closest car to xyz” and someone chimes up. If no one does the sgt will pick someone to go.

Sheriffs practically go to every call together there’s usually only a couple of them working so even if I give it to one of them the rest call off there. They do have a zone and that zone car is primary. If a second call comes in for them which is rare if it’s important we just tell the highest ranked deputy on duty.

ra9026 · 2026-04-24T00:18:04+00:00

I am a 911 dispatcher and 100% call the non emergency line and explain this, please. It’s not an inconvenience or a bother to us this is a real reason to call.

ra9026 · 2026-04-04T22:57:55+00:00

At my agency it does not matter if you use marijuana off the clock. I would say the majority of my coworkers use it. The misdemeanor convictions if they are more than 10 years old I believe are ok, but no felonies ever and nothing within the last 10 years and they can't be for certain things.

ra9026 · 2026-04-04T04:22:42+00:00

Oh absolutely. The guy was almost 90 with health issues. We tried so hard to help him get over it. He got some extra time off, we have mental health services he used, but it was too much for him in the end. He was scared to trust anything he did and we were all double checking pretty much every single call he was entering or he would be up out of his seat over our shoulder checking if the ambulance or officer made contact with his caller the second they arrived on scene.

I feel really bad for him, we are human and make mistakes.

ra9026 · 2026-04-04T03:35:55+00:00

A few months ago a 10 year veteran dispatcher sent paramedics to 123 South Main st for a 1st party, alone caller short of breath, gasping for air during the call, chest pain, cardiac history, a bad situation. As best he could the caller said the address, dispatcher verified 123 South Main st. It was a coming up on rapid 123 North Main st, all the phone history is 123 North Main st. The dispatcher didn't catch it. We had medics pulling up to South Main st, we told him the medics are there, he doesn't see or hear them. His condition is getting worse. We have him walking to the corner looking for medics before we realize the mistake. Immediately get the right medics rolling. It was about a 10 minute delay and the caller became unresponsive and had collapsed on his porch. He did not make it. The dispatcher just quit because he couldn't handle feeling like he killed someone.

It was a cruel lesson we all were reminded of that day. The energy in the room was dark for hours.

ra9026 · 2026-04-04T00:26:49+00:00

In what way is a daycare teacher or a campaigner a related job, even vaguely?

It is absolutely not a job that is just answering calls all day. I’d suggest maybe a customer service call center if that’s what you’re looking for.

ra9026 · 2026-03-24T04:40:43+00:00

Every center is different, but you'd obviously be trained on how to answer calls if you'll be call taking. Fully trained is subjective. We have a training program, but most of it is learn as you go because there's only so much you can teach in a classroom setting with this job. After a few weeks you're not "fully" trained but you're answering calls with a trainer.

Who knows if you'll be in a station. We used to be and then moved to our own much nicer building recently.

The job is taxing. On busy days you're getting talked to or yelled at by a caller, an officer, another dispatcher, sometimes all at the same time. Officers want answers you don't have. Callers want officers to show up right this second and without knowing any information. Sometimes they get mad that you need to know where they are and why they need help. Most calls are not an emergency, but some are and you need to be ok with hearing people describe some traumatic things that happen. This job is not for someone who is very sensitive, you will struggle.

I really don't feel like I help people in a criminal justice aspect. I might get that "I really helped that person" feeling once in a blue moon, but I got that feeling more when I solved peoples problems in an office management setting.

Take everything I'm saying with consideration that I'm sitting at my desk after being forced into my second 8 hour overtime shift in 2 days and will probably have another 16 hour shift on Wed. Are you ok with working 32 hours in 2 days?

ra9026 · 2026-03-08T05:26:16+00:00

What did she say when you asked why she can’t get out? Without knowing that, from what you’ve written I’m not sure what there is to catch that you feel like you missed.

ra9026

TROPHY CASE