I am 911: King County dispatchers call for professional recognition

We should soon hear the 911 calls from last Friday’s deadly Cascade Mall shooting.

Inevitably, the 911 call takers will sound calm — seemingly detached or disinterested — while all hell is breaking loose on the other end. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

During a recent visit to the King County regional communications center,  I was expecting shouting, lots of running around. But it reminded me more of a library. As the call takers and dispatchers sat calmly at their computer terminals, you’d never know there’s crisis on so many calls.

“A lot of it is training,” said Tracy Nill, a veteran 911 call taker.

Over the course of 22 years, Nill has dealt daily with the worst, and best in people.

“You’re trained to know what line of questioning to go down. But a lot of it is just the character of  who we are as 911 dispatchers. It does take a very specific, special kind of person to be able to – in crisis – calm down instead of amp up,” Nill said.

Ultimately, her job is simple. Connect King County Sheriff’s deputies with callers in the midst of an emergency.

“So our job is crucial in keeping not only the public safe, but our deputies safe, trying to gather the absolute pertinent information that they need to have going into these situations and make sure that they go in with everything that we are able to get from the caller so that they are walking in safer than going in blind,” Nill said.

That’s why you hear them asking so many questions, even if it seems like they’re just wasting time.

Manny Apostol has been a call taker for over 24 years.

While he and the others are asking questions, they’re rapidly typing the information into a computer terminal, which is connected to the dispatchers who actually send the cops on the call.

“And it gets over to the dispatcher in a split second, and that gets over to the deputy … it’s not delaying the call at all and actually it speeds up the process because now we know what we’re going into,” he said.

Like last Friday’s mall shooting.

Manny, Tracy and the others have been on the line for the worst life can dish out.

And while they keep things calm during a call, Tracy admits sometimes they need help after to work through the emotions of dealing with so much death or destruction.

A peer assistance team is always on stand by to help the call takers process and get over what they’ve been through – everyone from fellow call takers to leadership that have been through what they have.

“I can’t even go home and talk with my husband about what I do,” Nill said. “He’ll be there for me, but he can’t understand at the level that is maybe important for me to move forward.  It has to be somebody else that’s in this line of work that gets it.”

It’s a critical job – which is why the hiring and training is so rigorous.

Not just anyone can do it.

Over 300 applied during the most recent round of recruiting. Training Supervisor Debi Nelson says after months of testing and initial screening,  just several dozen will even get an interview.

“We’re looking for how they’ve handled themselves with other situations, how they’ve handled conflict, how they’ve handled stress,” Nelson said.

At most, only nine will be hired for a one year probationary period. And they’ll undergo months of training before actually taking 911 emergency calls on their own.

“We teach them how to talk to people, how to handle those difficult situations, listening for things in the background where people not be saying anything but you’re hearing things going on, geography,” Nelson said.

It’s complex, and extremely skilled work.

And a new movement is underway to recognize them for it.

A podcast, blogs and the hashtag “I am 911“ have been spreading recently around social media.

It’s a campaign started by a dispatcher back east, calling on the federal government to change the designation for 911 call takers and dispatchers from clerical to protective.

Right now, they’re treated no differently than a receptionist, taxi dispatcher or customer service call taker.

“It recognizes the profession for what it is. And that’s being a lifeline for both officers and citizens,” Apostol said.

“You’ll see dispatchers from all over the country.  They’re coming forward sharing their personal stories. Some are lighthearted, some are really gut wrenching, some are really hard to read.  But it really gives an idea of some of the things we go through on a day-to-day basis,” he said.

Follow @http://twitter.com/joshkerns38