Emergency Communications Officer PART TWO

Just finished my week of training for ECO: Emergency Communications Officer. The exam is on Monday. I have lots of studying to do over the weekend.

As I mentioned in my last post about this, we did listen to calls from Columbine H.S. and some radio channels that day. They were very spooky. I sat there (like I will one day on the job) only listening, I will be blind to what is going on and relying only on the caller's information. The Columbine calls were especially spooky once I let that concept sink in.

My imagination was trying to fill in what was going on when we would hear the gun fire and then the librarian on the phone would freak out but the 911 dispatcher wouldn't. She was as cool as November the whole time.

With each gun shot heard over the phone I got chills. I also learned a few things about that day I didn't recall knowing about the shooter's plans and an apparent fire fight between police and one of the shooters.

We quickly discussed September 11th 2001 and how most of the calls went to NJ state Police because NY couldn't handle all of them and the heart breaking stories about callers giving what would be their last messages to their families, messages about where important papers were in the house etc, etc to the 911 operators that day.

Some of those dispatchers are still on the job, others not so much a lot. Some folks just had to walk away. Some of them didn't realize the gravity of the situation until 2 weeks later because they were running on adrenaline for so long that day. It just didn't sink in.

With that notion we discussed stress levels in this profession and how to deal with them. We are not going to always get resolution to the situations we dispatch Police, Fire, EMS to etc. And the idea that an unfortunate out come on a call can have a lasting effect on us is a very real possibility.

We may speak to someone who is actually dying while on the phone with us...this is scary stuff.

I also got chills listening to a call made by a 5 year old boy after he woke up at 4 am thinking he heard a gun shot. The dispatcher was amazing on this call and kept the boy talking and distracted form the situation...the boy saw a bullet on the floor and blood. He reported his father was bleeding and his mother wasn't moving.

Unfortunately his mother was dead and his father would die a week later from gun shot wounds. Turns out a visitor the child's parents knew was staying in the house and something went wrong between them.

Had the child left his room a few seconds earlier he might have seen the guy who shot his parents leaving the house and might have been shot as well.

I had not considered children and hearing impaired/deaf people calling 911, I don't know why. But the fact that they can call 9-1-1 reinforced the intimidation factor for a little while, only because they have to be handled differently and perhaps more delicately. But over the last couple of days that feeling subsided and I started to see how important this job is and the impact I could have in saving someones life.

The timed exercises have gotten easier and I learned more about how the 911 system was set up, it's history, the technology it uses now and what's down the pike than anyone needs to know about anything.

After my test next week I certify for CPR and jump right into the 2nd half of my training for Emergency Medical Dispatch for another week. After that I can start filling out applications and hopefully find a Police Dept in need of a civilian ECO.

My goal is to stay in Sussex County. I don't want a long commute if I can help it. Who does?