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00:00:00
00:00:01
Keith - 911 Dispatch Supervisor
53 Plays2 months ago
This interview was a personal pleasure of mine as I wanted to highlight some people I've never actually met. 911 dispatchers have been on the other end of my fire radio for the last 26 years and I have the utmost gratitude and admiration for them and their work. If you have the desire to help others and may want to make a career in this vital line of work, this interview will give you a great inside look at the life of 911 and the people therein. A big thanks to Keith as well as dispatchers everywhere for always being there.
Music by: SnoozyBeats - Song Title - "Keep It Calm". Please check out SnoozyBeats on PixaBay for a ton of awesome content! -LINK
If you found the interview helpful and/or entertaining and would like to support the show, you can do so HERE. Thanks!
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Transcript
Intro
00:00:21
The Jobs Podcast
Hey folks, you're listening to the jobs podcast. I am your host, Tim Hendricks. And today we've got a special treat for 26 years of my career in the fire service. There have been multiple voices on the other end of the radio.
00:00:35
The Jobs Podcast
I have a lot of respect and admiration for these folks, 911 dispatchers. They do not get the credit they deserve. And a lot of people don't quite know what goes on. on the other end of the line.
00:00:46
The Jobs Podcast
So I have Keith with us today. He's been a 911 operator for a number of years and he's going to let us know what the job is like and we'll get these folks the recognition that they deserve. Hey Keith, you doing?
00:00:58
Keith
I'm good. How are you today?
00:00:59
The Jobs Podcast
Doing good, thanks. So let's go ahead and get right to it. Tell us a little bit about where you were born, your upbringing and your education and kind of how you ended up in dispatch.
00:01:09
Keith
All right. Well, uh, 41 years in a short, simple, sweet story. Uh, I was born November, 1983 in the beautiful city of Denver, Colorado.
00:01:22
The Jobs Podcast
Yep.
00:01:22
Keith
And, uh, the second of three boys we lived all throughout the United States during my upbringing. So after I was born in Denver, moved to New York, Louisiana, Tennessee, over to Ohio, then back to Colorado in a suburb of Denver. It's called Longmont, which is just outside of Boulder, if you're familiar with the area.
00:01:48
Keith
And then lived there for about six years before moved overseas. And then I lived in the Netherlands Six years, my parents ended up living there for eight years. But yeah, so I spent most of my childhood moving around, living in different places, traveling, seeing the world, and then living in the Netherlands.
00:02:09
Keith
Graduated from high school over there. Came back to Denver, Colorado to start my undergraduate career at the University of Denver. Spent a number, spent about two to three years there.
00:02:23
Keith
decided to transfer to Missouri State after I wanted to be closer to family. We had a death in the family that kind of rattled us. So I wanted to be closer to my family and be closer to everybody. So I started Missouri State and then finished my undergraduate career. right around that time, it was the 2008 financial crisis.
00:02:47
Keith
So no one was hiring at that point. The economy had pretty much collapsed and everything that I was trying to do, jobs were pretty much non-existent. So I was just trying to do some menial jobs just to make some money and do what I could.
00:03:05
Keith
And then I decided that I was going to get my master's while I was also working because a lot of the things that I had been reading basically said, you know, to get yourself a leg you needed a master's degree.
00:03:18
Keith
So I started my master's degree. I got my undergraduate in political science from Missouri state and then, decided to go into the master of global studies. It's kind of like international relations.
00:03:35
Keith
And I, and I got that, But government jobs, they are federal government jobs. They still hadn't rebounded. had applied number of times to join the Foreign Service to become a diplomat.
00:03:52
Keith
basically work at a U.S. embassy abroad, work for the State Department.
00:03:56
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm. Yeah.
00:03:56
Keith
I always could get to the final stage. I mean, as you're aware, in any sort of government job, whether it's local, state, federal, you have different stages the job application that you get to.
00:04:08
Keith
And I always got to the final stage, but I could just never get past that. And so of had a little moment where I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. I didn't want to move because I had a young family and I didn't want to uproot everybody from where we were at.
00:04:24
Keith
And so I was just looking for something local, saw that 911 was hiring. And I, and I looked at the, the job specs the pay and figured it would, it would, it would be a good job to at least get and keep for the time being.
00:04:40
Keith
Well, I, well, I kept my options open and fast forward 10 years and,
00:04:42
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:04:45
Keith
I've been working there since, and I'm now a shift supervisor. So it's definitely not a traditional path to becoming a 911 dispatcher, but one that I think a lot of us share that, you know, very few of us actively seek to get into this job.
00:05:03
Keith
I think a lot of us kind of stumble upon it accidentally, but we all share kind of the same Same goals that we have or same mindset that we like of, you service, especially public service, helping the community, being a part of something bigger than yourself.
00:05:21
Keith
So it's definitely been an interesting path getting to where I am right now, for sure.
00:05:29
The Jobs Podcast
What types of education if someone just said, I'm going to set out, I want to work in dispatch, I want to be the 911 What types of training or education is it a national kind of a certification or is it state by state or how would that kind of play out?
00:05:48
Keith
Well, so first, there are, so each different 911 agency is unique. So you have different state levels that kind of gauge how much training and certification you need. And then nationally, there are some national standards that certainly apply. So we have APCO, which is the Association of Public Safety Communications Officers. It's kind of like a national board.
00:06:17
Keith
We also have NENA, which is the National Emergency Number Association. So those are kind of two national level organizations that kind of
00:06:26
The Jobs Podcast
Thank
00:06:26
Keith
bring everyone together and kind of work top level issues of, okay, we look at call answer times, how fast we want to process things, certain questions that we need to answer.
00:06:38
Keith
But each state has its own set of guidelines that they require. In terms of educational background, just in terms of the job qualifications, you need to have a high school diploma.
00:06:52
Keith
You don't need any sort of advanced degree or even even a bachelor's degree. It certainly would help, though. And the reason why I say that is that the world of 911 is definitely changing from the first 911 call that was made in the 60s on a landline to now where over 85% of our 911 calls come in from cell phones.
00:07:19
Keith
The world is rapidly changing. And a lot of 911 is still trying to be in the shift from the analog age to the digital age.
00:07:31
The Jobs Podcast
Thank you.
00:07:31
Keith
So if you have any sort of background in technology, whether it's radio communications or even someone who's done military service and they've worked on radios, they've been on the radio We actually had one of our dispatchers become Air Force officer, and she actually became an officer and worked some of these Air Force communication planes that fly at high altitude, and they're the ones that are establishing ground communications and air communications for the entire U.S. Air Force.
00:08:05
Keith
So there's a lot of technological side that you could do, but even just having... some critical thinking the ability to think on your feet to rationalize you know to have that kind of ability to think and learn and grow those are some of the the skill sets that that we look for
00:08:28
The Jobs Podcast
I remember when I got into the fire service, speaking on the radio, communicating with brevity, precision, being succinct in what you're trying to convey in as few words as possible was something that I wasn't used to doing.
00:08:43
The Jobs Podcast
Do you find a lot of folks when they come in after they've been there for a while, they start to get more efficient with their communication with the general public and each other?
00:08:54
Keith
Definitely with each other and the general public. I think oftentimes the communication that we give emergency type situations is not the same type of communication that you would give on a normal basis.
00:09:13
Keith
So, you know, when I'm asking my wife how her day is, you know, I want you know, beginning of the story, the middle, the end, you know, the ups, the downs. But like you were highlighting, in emergency communications, I need the important stuff to the point, you know, I'm going to direct the conversation a little more.
00:09:31
Keith
I'm going to use very direct language.
00:09:33
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:09:33
Keith
It's not us being rude.
00:09:33
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:09:34
Keith
It's just, you we have units en route, whether it's, you know, fire units en route for a house fire or someone who may be suffering a medical emergency versus enforcement who may be confronting a suspect that has weapons. You we need to get that information quickly and be able to convey it in a manner that other people in the dispatch center can know and understand.
00:09:59
Keith
So the way that 911 kind of works is whenever you dial 911, you'll speak to a 911 professional and the first question we'll ask every single time, where is your emergency?
00:10:14
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:10:14
Keith
Because if we don't know the where, we can't send anybody.
00:10:19
Keith
But at least if we have a where, we can at least figure out, okay, something's going on at this location. Then we start asking our more direct questions of what's going on, tell exactly what happened.
00:10:30
Keith
And then we're able to write some notes, code the call based on what's going on, and then enter it into our CAD system. And CAD stands for computer-aided dispatch.
00:10:42
Keith
So when I enter a call for service, I'm typing notes in a computer program And then it goes to the correct dispatcher to send out a unit.
00:10:52
Keith
So it could go to the fire dispatcher. It could go to the, the law enforcement dispatcher. And so I need to make sure that I am translating effectively what the caller is giving me, typing it out very succinctly, and then entering it in to where another person can be able to read that and tell what's going on without having to be on the phone.
00:11:15
Keith
And then they, in turn are relaying that information to the units that are en route. So succinct, clear, direct communication is something that we practice daily.
00:11:27
Keith
And it oftentimes can get forgotten once we're just having conversations amongst ourselves when, when things aren't going on or we can have a moment of, you know, downtime, if, if you will.
00:11:41
Keith
you we're so used to that, to that type of communication. that it can be hard to switch off and switch on from time to time.
00:11:50
The Jobs Podcast
Do you, aside from the 10 code that I think law enforcement still uses the fire service, we don't really use that. It's just pretty much just simple, straightforward speak.
00:12:01
The Jobs Podcast
Are there codes that you use when you're typing information in or do you type it how you would speak it straightforward and direct?
00:12:09
Keith
So one of the things that, that you learn whenever you start 9-1-1 and in each agency is different. so our agency at Springfield, Green County, 9-1-1, we, we practice what, NIMS and ICS, really preach.
00:12:28
Keith
And that simple, clear, direct communication, no use of 10 codes or any sort of other codes,
00:12:31
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:12:36
Keith
And for those that may not know, NIMS and ICS, ICS is the Incident Command System and NIMS is the National Incident Management System. And one of the things that it found, especially during 9-11, one of the problems that hindered the ability of all these agencies to work together and coordinate together after a major, major incident,
00:12:59
Keith
was you had all of these people who weren't able to effectively communicate to each other because one agency had one meeting for 1040 and another agency had another meeting for that same thing.
00:13:07
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:13:11
Keith
And so it was hard for them to speak. So what NIMS and ICS recommends is that you use plain, clear, direct speech. And so that's what we use it at 9-1-1.
00:13:23
Keith
Now there are other organizations in the state of Missouri that use 10 code still, and that's fine. But I still have to ask, you know, when I'm on the phone with Missouri State Highway Patrol and they give me a 10 code, have to ask, I don't know what you mean. Can you explain that to me? So that way I can make sure that I effectively communicate that to my dispatchers or whatever units are going.
00:13:45
Keith
So we are very much for plain, direct, concise speech. And I think it helps because then everyone's on the same page. Now we do use certain codes, but that's just more for alerting law enforcement that they're in the presence of someone who may have a warrant or be a person that they don't want them to hear the radio traffic.
00:14:14
Keith
They might, they, it might indicate to the officer that that person is known to be violent or known to be armed or something like that. So we do those. But other than that, we just use direct speech.
00:14:28
The Jobs Podcast
When you are new, what position does the rookie, so to speak, start in 9-1-1? Is it just an observational position or do you throw them to the phones and trial by fire kind thing? Or how does that play out?
00:14:43
Keith
So our training program that we do at Springfield Green County 911 is roughly about 800 hours of training.
00:14:51
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:14:52
Keith
And they start off the first week as just kind of an onboarding new hire orientation where you go over some paperwork, you meet with HR, you do your benefits enrollment and stuff like that, but you're also learning about the different positions, what you do, some call types, things that you're going to hear out on the floor without actually having to listen to the phone calls yet.
00:15:18
Keith
And then your second week, you're learning the computer system. And that's an entire week in and of itself. So you're learning how to navigate CAD, how to navigate through the entire program, how to do things, how to type things out. So that way we understand it and the units responding also know to understand it.
00:15:42
Keith
And then after that week, you sit with a trainer on phones. the phones are the first thing that you get trained on at our agency.
00:15:54
The Jobs Podcast
Thank you.
00:15:54
Keith
Some agencies, they have you do law enforcement and then kind of ease you into the phones. But with us, as busy as we are, we need people to know phones from the get go.
00:16:05
Keith
And the phones is kind of like a you're learning multiple things. Number one, you're learning how to take a 911 call, how to use skills like active listening, you know, to pick up on the subtle nuances of someone's speech.
00:16:21
Keith
to see, you know, is what they're telling you sound like something that's what's going on. So for example, someone could be telling me that there's a person that's there with a gun and threatening them.
00:16:35
Keith
But if I notice that their speech is very calm and very just nonchalant, that's going to raise a question and be like, okay, well, who is this person to you? What, you know, explain this situation a little bit more because it just, it,
00:16:50
Keith
from how they sound isn't really matching with what they're saying. And so can dive a little more.
00:16:58
The Jobs Podcast
That wouldn't be normal human behavior, which would raise a red flag, right?
00:17:01
Keith
Exactly, exactly.
00:17:02
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. All right.
00:17:03
Keith
So you're learning the kind of tools of the trade, being able to take the 911 calls. Not only that, but you're also learning our policies, procedures, and the policies and procedures of nine law enforcement agencies and 13 fire protection districts that we dispatch for.
00:17:23
The Jobs Podcast
Phew.
00:17:23
Keith
So there's a lot of stuff that you need to learn. So like one of the major examples is taking routine medical calls. So if someone calls and they want an ambulance because they have a broken toe, well, depending on where they are in Greene County,
00:17:42
Keith
fire rescue will go. So Springfield Fire won't go because it's part of their response that they go for high-level medical emergencies, you know, stabbings, shootings, someone's not breathing, they're unconscious, stuff like that. But some of the outlying areas, fire rescue goes on every single call. Doesn't matter.
00:18:03
Keith
If they want an ambulance, fire rescue will go. But then there are some of those fire agencies that they're like, well, we kind of want a little bit of both. And so have to know lot of these different policies and procedures and you, and you learn that by doing and taking these calls and making, you know, these small mistakes that your trainer can then correct you on immediately. And we could make sure it's not going to delay any sort of service or make sure that people aren't getting their, their ambulance in time or, you know, getting the help that they need quickly.
00:18:37
Keith
You do that for about 200 hours. And then once you've kind of, gone through and we do daily training evaluations on everyone. Every day that you're in training, if you sat with a trainer, they're going to do an evaluation on you. And it's basically just saying what I observed, how you did, ways you can improve, and things you might need to work on.
00:19:01
Keith
Once you get all acceptable and you've done that consistently, we'll give you the go-ahead and you'll be released. So you'll be a call taker for a little bit.
00:19:08
The Jobs Podcast
Thank you.
00:19:10
Keith
And then you go through some of the other positions. And so at our agency, we have the SPD admin channel where you learn how to read warrants, read vehicle information,
00:19:24
Keith
through Department of Revenue, like whenever an officer pulls someone over on a traffic stop and they check the vehicle registration, make sure it's not stolen, or they run your license plate to make sure, or I'm sorry, your driver's license to make sure that you're a valid driver, all of those sort of things.
00:19:40
Keith
And then after that, you SPD dispatch. After that, you do county and muni, and then there's fire dispatch as well. So In total, about 800 hours worth of training that someone goes through. So it normally takes about a year for someone to, from the time they hit the floor till they're fully cross-trained, it's about a year. So it's a long process and we invest a lot of time and effort into training.
00:20:11
The Jobs Podcast
What age do you have to be to apply and work in dispatch? Is that department different or is there a nationwide standard?
00:20:20
Keith
Generally, it's 18. So you need to be 18 years of age.
00:20:22
The Jobs Podcast
OK.
00:20:30
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:20:34
Keith
But most of the time, I want to say that whenever we get new hires, I think the youngest one that we have currently, they're about 20, 21 years old. But 18 absolute minimum.
00:20:46
The Jobs Podcast
When your trainer is sitting there with you, are they on a headset where they can hear what's the information coming in and then they can hear your response or are they just waiting for you to ask them questions or how does that kind of look?
00:20:59
Keith
Yeah, so they definitely have a headset on and they are hearing everything that you're hearing and they are able to hear everything that the caller is saying and plus their trainee.
00:21:04
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:21:09
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:21:09
Keith
And so when you start off, you're going to be listening to us and seeing what we do and we'll explain some things and kind of help build you along.
00:21:20
Keith
But ideally, by the end of day one, we want you talking and typing on your own. to start the process of building that confidence and, you know, making those mistakes because mistakes are crucial to learning.
00:21:25
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. Sure. Mm-hmm.
00:21:33
Keith
You know, you need to fail in order to
00:21:36
Keith
And we have the ability. So back when I first started, it was just, it's called a Y cable where you plug in and you're kind of separated and I can flip a switch to where they would be muted.
00:21:49
Keith
And then I could, I could speak if I needed to take over. And there were, and there were times when I was in training and when I sat with people in training that you need to kind of kick over because,
00:21:52
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:22:00
Keith
the call's not going the way that you need it to. Maybe the caller's telling you some stuff that's not really important or, know, we need to get them transferred over to EMS or need to ask specific type questions because we have law enforcement on the way.
00:22:15
Keith
Whatever the situation might be, you know, we have the ability to kind of butt in, so to speak. But as they progress, we're doing that less and less, meaning that, you know, you're more independent on your own of,
00:22:30
Keith
knowing when to ask certain questions, what questions are relevant for each call. Like, for example, if someone's calling in a parking complaint that, you know, there's a vehicle parked in a handicapped spot and they don't have a handicap, uh, placard.
00:22:45
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Right.
00:22:46
Keith
Okay. I, I don't need to ask if that about weapons or if, uh, the person's intoxicated because generally speaking, it's just a vehicle. So versus if there's some sort of domestic disturbance or assault that occurred where we're sending law enforcement, I need to know, are there weapons involved? Does anybody have any injuries that I might need to start an ambulance to?
00:23:10
Keith
So being able to know and ask those call type specific questions
00:23:15
Keith
We'll build throughout the time. But yeah, we were right there with them. We see the screen that they're working on. We hear what's going on and we can gently nudge them on what to say, how to say it.
00:23:26
Keith
We can interject when we need to, but it's definitely we're right there, right next to you.
00:23:32
The Jobs Podcast
I would imagine that somebody that's new to this, they may not understand quite the assault on your senses when you first start answering 911 phone calls. People in certain emergencies, they're losing their minds. It's the worst day that they've ever had, and they're calling you for help.
00:23:49
The Jobs Podcast
That can be overwhelming to someone who's new. Do you find lot of folks, it's a shock to them initially, and then they settle in? Or do most folks go into it knowing, expecting, okay, this is going to be lot, and I'm going to have to soldier on?
00:24:05
Keith
So, you know, it's kind of mixed bag. There are some people who fully know and fully expect what's going to happen. But you can have an idea.
00:24:18
Keith
but it's different living through it. Like, I'm sure I'm sure you're well aware of, you know, going through training, you know, working a motor vehicle accident.
00:24:21
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah. Right.
00:24:26
Keith
They can tell you these are the type of things you're going to see. These are the type of things that you're going to have to do when you're out there. And when you're out there, you're doing a job that's particular to that motor vehicle accident.
00:24:38
Keith
But there's a person in there that's, you know, possibly, you know, unconscious and, you know, they're fighting for their life. And but you still have your job to do, you know, and your job is is an essential part of the entire process.
00:24:51
Keith
So so lot of people they know and understand, like. People are having people genuinely 99.9% of the time, don't call 911 just to chit chat.
00:25:04
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:25:04
Keith
You know, it's because they're having an emergency and more often than not, this is the worst emergency that this person has had their life.
00:25:14
Keith
You know, it could be loved one collapsed on the floor and they're not breathing. And so hearing that and being that calm voice on the other end and guiding them through that and being able to say,
00:25:27
Keith
to give the level of care and compassion while also knowing and understanding that this is your job and you need to be the calm one. It, it definitely, can, can throw people for a loop. Uh, I, I've known some people who, who started off and they were really good at call taking and they were really good at their jobs and they, they got about 75% of the way through and, and they just said, look, I, I can't do it.
00:25:54
Keith
I, I thought I could, but, uh, I, I can't go on. And, and that's fine. You know, there, there are, there are a lot of times, a lot of things that, that we hear on the phone that, that stay with you for, for a long time. I, there are calls that, that I have very distinct memories on going back 10 years. I could tell you exactly where I was on in the building, what phone console I was talking, the address of the incident, you know, and there,
00:26:28
Keith
being able to recognize that it's their emergency and being able to compartmentalize initially, but then also recognizing that we need to be able to take care of ourselves and our mental health because, you know, there, there is, there is old adage of, you know, just soldiering on and that's, and there are people who do soldier on and that's, that's just who they are.
00:26:35
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:53
Keith
But I think more and more, people are recognizing, and especially the state level, more and more states are recognizing that 911 professionals are first responders.
00:27:06
Keith
So we can get some of the level of care and mental health resources that some of our other first responder brothers and sisters get with, you know, like EMS, fire and PD as well.
00:27:16
Keith
So I'm
00:27:17
The Jobs Podcast
I'm glad to hear that.
00:27:25
The Jobs Podcast
Good.
00:27:28
Keith
I always joke around and say dispatch is always the redheaded stepchild when it comes to to the public safety triangle of police, fire, and EMS, so to speak.
00:27:37
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:27:38
Keith
But we're very much in it. And not only that, but if you look at the the life the life cycle of a call you on you on the fire rig you can you can respond out to a very bad motor vehicle accident and you work the scene you you get the the person extricated from from the vehicle ems takes them off you stay on scene working with pd to get the the road cleared and then you go back to the station you can have a debriefing you can put yourselves out of service you can do some things and meet initially
00:28:13
Keith
PD can kind of do the same thing as well. They're working the scene, they're getting the vehicle off the road. For us at 9-1-1, I hang up that call, another 9-1-1 line's ringing.
00:28:21
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:28:24
Keith
Boom, I got to answer it. And now it's a mother with a baby that's not breathing. And so the onslaught of stuff that can happen, it's very real. And I don't want to try to scare people away because that's not my intent at all, because it is a very fulfilling career.
00:28:42
Keith
And I've been able to meet some very amazing people and talk to some really awesome people on the phone. And I couldn't imagine the last 10 years of my life without working at dispatch.
00:28:56
Keith
But I also need to recognize that, you know, being able you know, work through lot of these high priority calls It definitely is aware on you. And if you're not aware of your own mental health and your ability to work through things and deal with things in a productive manner, it definitely can can wear on you for sure.
00:29:20
The Jobs Podcast
That's some solid advice, and that is one of the big reasons that pushed me to do this podcast in the beginning is that when you look online or on YouTube whatever for jobs, you see all these, oh, you can make this much, and this is the great thing, and here's a perk, and here's another benefit.
00:29:36
The Jobs Podcast
But people, they gloss over sometimes the real negatives. And every job, I don't care what it is, has positives and it has some negatives. That's just the nature of life.
00:29:46
The Jobs Podcast
And you're absolutely right. The word onslaught, I can see that being a perfect thing. descriptor of your job. When our call is over, sometimes we'll go to another one if it's really busy, but a lot of times we just go back to the house and yours, you hang up and there's three more calls waiting for you. And it's just on repeat.
00:30:07
The Jobs Podcast
And I can see that if you're not prepared for that, it could be a bit much. So this, this is the kind of stuff that benefits the listener. So I'm really glad that you explained all that.
00:30:18
Keith
Yeah, no, I truly believe that through knowledge and being able to discuss parts of the job, look, there are times where 911 gets just, we get burnt out.
00:30:32
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Right.
00:30:38
Keith
We feel like it's just so much stuff because when you're in public safety, There's a lot of negativity that you deal with because it's just the nature of what we do.
00:30:49
Keith
Again, no one's calling 911 because they want to just chit chat and tell you, hey, you're doing a great job today.
00:30:55
Keith
I appreciate you and your service. And so being in that, living in the muck, so to speak, can definitely wear on you. And so you need constantly be reevaluating what is my why?
00:31:12
Keith
And for a lot of us, it's because we love public service. We love helping people. We love the community that we live in. We love working for an agency where people are highly skilled. And I would stand next to these people on the front lines like we do every single shift. So it's something that you have to constantly be looking inside and recentering and figure out your why, because It's easy to get lost in that because if you're just looking at the tunnel and you're trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel, sometimes you don't see the light.
00:31:41
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:31:52
Keith
And that could be a very scary place, especially for a new person. And especially for, not only that, but especially for someone who's been there a long time. maybe they think their light is never going to come back. And, you know, that's, that's just not simply true. We just need to be able to, know, look at ourselves through training, through resources, be able to recenter, refocus, retool and understand what is our why.
00:32:21
Keith
And think a lot of us are able to successfully do that. So I'm, I am definitely for full experience. And one of the things that we actually do whenever we're going through the hiring process, we have people whenever they whenever they take some of the initial tests to see if they've moved on to the next stage. So one of those first stages, they take a typing test to see if they meet the minimum qualifications for typing.
00:32:52
Keith
I want to say it's about 40 words a minute, but don't quote me on that.
00:32:56
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:32:56
Keith
And then they take a test called critical where it's their, their, They're using short-term memory, know, recollection to see if they could follow a map or if they can remember the license plate or the number, the description, and they're kind of like mock 911 calls.
00:33:14
Keith
One of the things that we do is we do an info session where we explain everything that goes on. We explain our shifts, we explain our vacation structure, we explain what 911 calls are actually like.
00:33:30
Keith
And we have them sit on the floor, listen to 911 calls for a period of time. And we want them to write down what they observe. Is this something that you're still interested in doing?
00:33:42
Keith
Because lot of people, again, they wanna help their community. They wanna do public service. But after listening to some 911 calls, they're like, you know what?
00:33:52
Keith
I might need to find a different avenue. And that's perfectly fine.
00:33:55
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:33:55
Keith
So, yeah, we definitely give everyone an opportunity to see and hear what it's like on the floor before they've even been given the. The the offer to to work for us.
00:34:11
The Jobs Podcast
These mock calls that you were just talking about, is this something where they have a headset on and they're, they're actually doing the job just in a simulation type thing?
00:34:21
Keith
I would say kind of, so it's, it's not a mock call where you're talking to someone.
00:34:25
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:34:30
Keith
It's basically someone talking and you can hear them give information and then it'll ask a series of questions on whether or not you can retain some of that information.
00:34:36
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. Okay.
00:34:55
Keith
What direction did they walk? You know, to see if you can understand cardinal directions and it's also map reading as well. So I, I say mock 911 calls only because you're, you're getting information on a call, so to speak, but it's not like a live 911 call, so to speak, that, that,
00:35:18
Keith
actually played out on the dispatch floor.
00:35:20
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. The two questions about kind of the nuts and bolts of your day-to-day job. What length of shifts do you work? And then what is a, or is there a typical dispatch type schedule nationwide? Like in the fire service, we got 2448s, 4896. There's a couple other oddball ones that only certain states use, but those are the two that you see the majority the time.
00:35:46
The Jobs Podcast
How do you typically run dispatch?
00:35:50
Keith
So we have nine different shift start times throughout the day.
00:35:58
Keith
And then, we're kind of weird in that smaller agencies, they normally do two different shifts of 12 hours.
00:36:07
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. Okay.
00:36:09
Keith
We at, at Greene County, 9-1-1, we have roughly 65, 68 people on the floor. And so we try to space those out throughout the day and then throughout the week.
00:36:25
Keith
So some people, we are scheduled to do 10 hour shifts due to short staffing.
00:36:31
Keith
And sometimes we often work 12s and some people will work 14s. I've worked four 14s in a row and I would not recommend it.
00:36:41
Keith
It definitely takes a toll on your body for sure.
00:36:44
The Jobs Podcast
I bet.
00:36:45
Keith
Yeah, I mean, I like the added paycheck with the overtime and stuff. But there's, there's a point where, you know, you're physically and mentally being run down.
00:36:48
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
00:36:54
Keith
So but yeah, we're normally scheduled for 10 hour shifts.
00:36:59
Keith
And
00:36:59
The Jobs Podcast
Do you have sit stand desks?
00:37:01
The Jobs Podcast
Do they have that option now to be able to alternate?
00:37:04
Keith
Yeah, we have desks that we could raise and lower and sit and stand.
00:37:04
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. Okay.
00:37:07
Keith
I try to stand as much as possible, but there are times where you just need to sit down.
00:37:09
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
00:37:13
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:37:13
Keith
So normal telecommunicator will come in and we have an app on our phone. It's called in-time scheduling and we can basically see where we're sitting throughout the day.
00:37:24
Keith
So depending how many positions you're released at will depend on where you're sitting. So your day could have some phones time. It could have some law enforcement dispatch, some fire dispatch, and you can kind switch in between. There are some people who they like to remain where they're seated. So they'll say, hey, I just want to be phones for 10 hours.
00:37:49
Keith
know, more power to them. I couldn't do can't do phones for 10 hours.
00:37:51
The Jobs Podcast
Thank you.
00:37:52
Keith
That definitely takes a toll on you. But there are some people that absolutely like it and prefer it. There are some people who like law enforcement dispatch and they'll try to sit there 10 hours out of the day.
00:38:07
Keith
So it just depends on the day and whether we have some extra staff or some staffing shortages where you get to sit. But you do a 10 hour shift.
00:38:18
Keith
And then, like I said, if we have someone call out sick or whatever, and we have some staffing shortages, we'll have mandatory overtime that needs to get filled. But for me, for me as a as a supervisor, so my day is a little different in that I need to be in charge for at least for generally six hours of my shift.
00:38:33
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:38:40
Keith
And so I'll be on the floor for two hours. I'll be in charge for about six and then I'll end by day, on the floor. And so what being in charge means is I'm basically the one running the entire floor, making sure, you know, the phones are getting answered in a timely manner. If anyone has any questions about policies, procedures, or anything like that, I'll be the final say on, on what to do.
00:39:07
Keith
making sure that radio communications are working making sure the cat is working optimally. we have it staff and we have admin staff there during the week, but that's Monday through Friday, you know, normal business hours, eight to eight to five.
00:39:23
Keith
So whenever it's after that, or if it's weekends, you know, uh, like when I was a night shift supervisor, there was a period of time where I was by myself and,
00:39:27
The Jobs Podcast
you
00:39:33
Keith
You know, if there was any sort of radio issues or anything, I had to be able diagnose them and get them back up and running again. So it definitely adds a different flair to your day than someone who's just working the floor.
00:39:47
The Jobs Podcast
So everyone in your, in your basically room where all the people are at, they can work any position. They're cross trained to do anything, but then there's some flexibility to kind of focus on fire or PD or EMS or what have you.
00:40:04
Keith
Well, yeah. So depending on what positions you're cross-trained for will affect your ability to sit.
00:40:10
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:40:12
Keith
So like someone who just got released on phones, they can only sit phones. So they're going to get scheduled 10 hours of phones a day.
00:40:20
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. Okay.
00:40:21
Keith
It's not fun, but whenever they are consistently showing that they can do the job, and it usually is about a month or two And then they will move on to training on different radio positions. So they usually either start on fire dispatch or the SPD admin channel.
00:40:44
Keith
It just depends on who else is training and what shift we can move them to because, you know, it's kind of like a weird balancing act.
00:40:54
Keith
trying to get someone trained and get them quality training.
00:40:57
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:40:57
Keith
But a lot of times you need stuff to happen in order for them to be trained.
00:41:01
Keith
So like the overnight hours, generally probably isn't a good time to train someone on fire dispatch because we generally have less calls that fire goes out for overnight.
00:41:15
Keith
I say generally, but you know, you could have those weird days where, you we had a tornado that ran through southeastern green County and, I think it was like North central Christian County. And so we had to send LR fire out to a number of, you know, possible house fires or structures that collapsed and, you know, things were, were crazy or, was January.
00:41:38
Keith
can't remember how many years ago it was, but this January we had heavy rains for about a week. And so it was just, we were getting flooding.
00:41:51
Keith
like crazy. And this is back when the fire dispatch used to be two separate ones. So Springfield fire had their own channel and then county fire had their own channel.
00:42:03
The Jobs Podcast
We call those the golden years.
00:42:03
Keith
So I was right.
00:42:04
The Jobs Podcast
I remember that it was a lot quieter in the firehouse back then.
00:42:08
Keith
Yes. Yeah. So I was on county fire and I personally dispatched over a two hour period, 65 water rescue calls in
00:42:18
The Jobs Podcast
Good grief.
00:42:19
Keith
Yeah, it was insane. And so, you know, I had to basically triage every single call that came in and dispatch, you know, was our caller.
00:42:31
Keith
in the vehicle that was now being submerged in water or being taken over by floodwaters, you know, and so I had to be able to go through that. And there were some that were duplicates because a person had just been driving by and they saw a vehicle.
00:42:44
Keith
Well, you know, when there's floodwaters, you're not able to get the vehicle towed out from, you know, so they tried their best to market with tapered or something.
00:42:48
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:42:54
Keith
But, you know, a lot of times they were duplicates, but being able to raise, you know, or understand that that was a vehicle that had already been checked on, but this person is calling from the vehicle that's getting submerged in the floodwaters, you know, and dispatch them out.
00:43:09
Keith
Yeah, it was, it was crazy. So you definitely have those days where we say it's like drinking from a fire hose. You know, there are, there are days where, you know, you're, you're just trying to make calls happen and you're like, for whatever reason, nothing's happening that's fire related.
00:43:17
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah.
00:43:27
Keith
But then you get those days where, you know, it seems like house fire pops up and then another building fire pops up and then, you know, Springfield fire goes into response mode one and then you got another building fire that pops up in the county.
00:43:42
Keith
And so things just kind of cascade from there. So whenever it rains, it pours over there.
00:43:46
Keith
But yeah, it definitely can get hectic for sure.
00:43:52
The Jobs Podcast
Now I'm going ask you a question and I want you to be honest. All right. How many coffee pots do you have going at one particular time in dispatch?
00:44:00
Keith
So we used to actually have, and we still have these, we had a bun coffee or still have a bun coffee maker where you could make the large carafts of coffee.
00:44:12
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:44:13
Keith
I used be the one that was continuously making those just because I love drinking coffee. I'll drink coffee all day and I can fall asleep right afterwards.
00:44:19
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:44:21
Keith
It's no problem for me.
00:44:22
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:44:23
Keith
But we've definitely gone away from that. And now people are more doing the individualized style, you know, like K-Cups and stuff. So, but the amount of time that people do the coffee breaks and stuff or running to get more coffee or, or whatever happens, happens a lot.
00:44:40
The Jobs Podcast
Let's talk about potential earnings. Now, I always preface this by saying that the starting wage and how much you can make is very market dependent.
00:44:49
The Jobs Podcast
You live in New York, you live in Los Angeles versus Springfield, Missouri, you're going to have a pretty different starting salary. But what do you know? Is there a kind of a general industry standard or is it really where you live?
00:45:05
Keith
Oh, it is 100% driven by where you live, 100%.
00:45:09
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:45:10
Keith
So one of the things that we actually used to do when I worked overnight, we just would look up random 911 jobs in other places and just see comparatively how much they made.
00:45:25
Keith
And can't remember what place it was in Southern California. But it was fire dispatch only. So you were just a fire dispatcher.
00:45:35
Keith
And your starting wage was $120,000 a year.
00:45:40
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah.
00:45:41
Keith
But when we looked at the comparative cost analysis of Springfield, Missouri, we made more on a comparative basis than, than they would out there.
00:45:52
Keith
So it's, you know, I, I would, I would very much caution anyone just looking at the sticker price, so to speak of, of looking at the, the dollar sign, because it's, it's very much region or even locality specific.
00:46:11
Keith
So where we're at, we are constantly looking at agencies in the surrounding area and dispatch centers of similar city size in other states to try figure out what is a fair market value. And we always are submitting information to the city so that way they can kind of update their figures and see if they need to do another...
00:46:38
Keith
staffing study or if they need to kind of look at, you know, the pay scale and figure out how much it But so starting off, I want to say new dispatchers earn about $40,000 a year.
00:46:56
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. All
00:46:56
Keith
And that in and of itself is also dependent on, you know, if you work more, if you work more overtime, you'll definitely make more if you work a different shift, you get shift differential pay.
00:47:09
Keith
So, and we have a special, so we have a very odd shift that no one wants to work and no one likes to work.
00:47:22
Keith
But we've just found that we need this block of time for people because these are generally like very busy hours, which sounds counterintuitive. It's 1 a.m. to 11 a.m.
00:47:34
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:47:35
Keith
So it's kind of like an overnight mixed in with a little bit of a day shift. So recently were able to get it passed to where whoever works that shift gets a special shift differential of an extra $3 per hour.
00:47:52
Keith
So it definitely is very, not only dependent upon what agency you work for, but also even what shift you work for inside of 911.
00:48:03
The Jobs Podcast
That would be with a full benefits package as well, health and all that kind of stuff.
00:48:06
Keith
Right, right. Yeah. So lot of times and things that I've seen, most agencies have your health insurance premium that they cover.
00:48:08
The Jobs Podcast
OK.
00:48:18
The Jobs Podcast
OK.
00:48:18
Keith
It's just whenever you start adding family members and stuff on that, you'll pick up that. A lot of times they do tuition reimbursement program.
00:48:23
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
00:48:28
Keith
They do other perks and stuff. I've even seen some dispatch centers have hiring incentives. of, you know, if you're, if you're fully, if you have some experience and you are moving and you work for one of these agencies, they'll do like a $2,000, $5,000 lateral hire, lateral hire program kind of as an, as an incentive.
00:48:49
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
00:48:51
Keith
But so definitely, definitely varies. But for us at Springfield, Green County, 9-1-1,
00:49:03
Keith
start off at about 40,000 a year, but then you go up and you can make 50, 60, 70, 80. mean, it just depends on how high you go in terms of your career laddering, but it also depends on how, how much you work.
00:49:16
The Jobs Podcast
Okay. Right. Okay.
00:49:18
Keith
So it's definitely, and, and depending on what you do.
00:49:23
Keith
So like our trainers, we have a special position for them. They are our lead telecommunicators and their primary job is training people.
00:49:35
Keith
So they get an 11% bump on their on their pay that normal telecommunicators don't get. And so we also have it's it's called a Pat scale. It stands for professional administrative technical scale.
00:49:53
Keith
So it can start off, you know, depending on your years of service, you know, you're you're starting out at step one and then by time you cap out, you're making 20 or $30,000 more per year than when you first started.
00:49:53
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
00:50:07
Keith
And then depending on each agency, you know, they do yearly cost of living adjustments depending on each agency and stuff like that. So, but it's very much region locality specific.
00:50:22
Keith
And not only that, but it largely depends on funding. one of the, one of the ways that nine one one was funded was through, sales or not sales tax, uh, landline taxes. So whenever you had a landline cell phone, it was a tax that was added to, you know, each locality that was able to use that money for nine one. But as landlines have gone the way of the dodo bird and more and more people are doing,
00:50:51
The Jobs Podcast
Heh.
00:50:55
Keith
cell phones, a lot of agencies have been facing budgetary shortfalls because they're not reaping the benefits. And so a lot of agencies have switched from the traditional income structure like that to doing a dedicated sales tax. So at Springfield, Green County, one eighth sales tax is afforded to 911. And that's that
00:51:24
Keith
is a non expiring sales tax that yearly goes to us. And that's how we get our, our funding. So it, you know, it's, it's, it's great because especially in this area, there are a lot of people that live outside that travel into Springfield for, for various things.
00:51:32
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:51:44
Keith
They, they work here. They may travel here for, for business. They may come here for other things. You know, it's, it's a regional hub. for a lot of stuff. So it definitely has helped us in terms of, the available money that we have. Uh, and ultimately you know, the amount of money that you have coming in determines how much you can pay your, your staff.
00:52:04
The Jobs Podcast
Sure. What types of soft skills that you've touched on a couple of them throughout our conversation, but to sum up what types of soft skills will, you know, when you have somebody that's new and you look at them and you go, they kind have, they've got it. I think they're going to do well versus folks that I'm not sure if this is the right fit for you. What do you see in the successful ones?
00:52:27
Keith
I mean, the biggest one, think, is the ability to think on your feet. You know, 911 calls, they can be very routine, but they can also present some challenges because you can get a situation that you really haven't quite had before.
00:52:44
Keith
And so you kind of have a general idea of what to do, but then being able to think on your feet and and use your knowledge, your tools that you've been given in order to come up with an answer that best fits that type of situation.
00:53:03
Keith
That really, really helps because if you've shown the ability to think, rationalize, make those quick, effective decisions,
00:53:13
Keith
even if you make a mistake and it's not the correct one, it can be changed in a very quick and efficient manner to where it's not going result in any sort of delay.
00:53:24
The Jobs Podcast
Right. Mm-hmm.
00:53:25
Keith
So one of the things that we're always talking about is, and especially with new people is as soon as you get brief idea of what's going on and you have a location, get the call entered because then we have something that we can do with it.
00:53:42
Keith
And especially on, on medical calls or fire calls, and high priority police calls, you know, like if someone's been shot, stabbed or something like that, we need to get those calls entered because literally seconds matter.
00:53:57
The Jobs Podcast
Right. Yeah.
00:53:58
Keith
You know, whether the fire crew gets out there in a timely manner for someone who's bleeding out is a, like five seconds is a very long time. And, you know, if you think about it as well, if we're delaying any sort of response,
00:54:13
Keith
we're not getting out the information in a timely manner. And so our, our units that are responding don't have all of the necessary information to know and understand what they're getting into or what they need to prep for.
00:54:26
Keith
And so being able to make these effective, quick decisions and really be able to think on your feet, but also have those, the rational thinking skills of being like, okay, I haven't had this quite yet.
00:54:41
Keith
but it's got these certain parameters. So I need to go with this call type for, for the fire call, because I think that would make the best response. So one of the things that I always try to rationalize with our, with our new people is, and most of our calls for service, it's roughly about 65% law enforcement related.
00:55:04
Keith
So whenever I try to teach someone about how I approach the
00:55:10
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
00:55:23
Keith
want send two, at least two.
00:55:27
Keith
And then not only that, but the call priority. So it's a little different for fire because as soon as you guys get a call for service, we send it. But law enforcement, there are calls that can pen for a while, depending on what the situation is.
00:55:42
Keith
And so always try to rationalize, is this priority level correct? And are the correct number of officers going? And so, know, by teaching our new people how to think like that and think in terms of what a response type would look like, I think they're able to effectively differentiate the lower priority calls versus the higher ones and be able to think, okay, this is something that we need to send more units to. So we need to make sure to bump this up in priority or make sure that it gets dispatched in a,
00:56:20
Keith
you know, some of your lower priority calls, which could be like a parking complaint or something that's just, you know, a moving traffic violation or something like that.
00:56:31
Keith
So yeah, oh, absolutely.
00:56:34
The Jobs Podcast
It is triage.
00:56:35
Keith
So fully one of the things that I tell people who are on the floor observing before they get hired on 911 is an ER just in a different setting because we are literally taking in the calls, figuring out what's going to be the highest priority, who needs to go and where
00:56:36
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:56:48
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:56:58
Keith
That's what you're doing as a call taker. You're coding the call with a call type. So whether it's a house fire or, you know, a possible motor vehicle accident, you know, you're coding the call, you're sending to the units, you're getting the information to the people that need to go.
00:57:14
Keith
And knowing and understanding, you know, if you walk into the ER and you have, you know, diarrhea, let's say, or some other, you know, non-critical ailment,
00:57:18
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah.
00:57:27
Keith
just know that you're going to be there for a while. And that doesn't mean that your ailment isn't important or it's not going to get handled.
00:57:38
Keith
It's just there are times where we have to have the doctor see someone who has compound fracture or someone who's been shot or stabbed because their life is on the line.
00:57:48
Keith
So it is 100% accurate to say that we triage calls like an ER, for sure.
00:57:55
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah, if nobody's paying attention to you, that's a good thing when it comes to emergency response because you're stable, you're fine. And sometimes we have people that don't realize I'm not over here holding your hand because there's other people that are way worse than you. So count your blessings.
00:58:10
The Jobs Podcast
I'll be with your paper cut here in a second. You know what mean?
00:58:13
Keith
Right.
00:58:13
The Jobs Podcast
So what types of personalities do you typically find in dispatches?
00:58:13
Keith
Yeah.
00:58:18
The Jobs Podcast
Are there mostly extroverts, introverts? Is it a good mix or it kind of really irrelevant to your occupation?
00:58:24
Keith
So one of the things that we actually try to do at our agency is we have our new people take a personality test and we have a mentorship program that we do and we try to pair up
00:58:33
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, okay.
00:58:40
Keith
our new person with someone who matches their personality type.
00:58:46
Keith
And, and so it's a really great way to provide mentorships and a person who just be there and listen to the trainee and not be in a, in a role that's, you know, I'm training you, but I'm, I'm here to listen. I want to know how your progress is going. So I just kind of check up on you and make sure everything's going fine.
00:59:05
Keith
So I recently had a a person who became fully cross-trained and we were the exact same personality type with one exception.
00:59:17
Keith
So she was an INTJ and I am an ENTJ. So she was the introvert version of me. And so we, we definitely get introverts. We definitely get extroverts, but I, but I would say more often than not, the people who,
00:59:43
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
00:59:46
Keith
are their own worst enemy. They get it inside their head a lot. No amount of criticism that you can give me is going to be worse than the amount of criticism I can give myself.
00:59:56
Keith
The people who really strive to do good, put in the extra effort to learn and grow, and that's great. But on the flip side of that,
01:00:08
Keith
It just means that we can burn ourselves out faster and harder. Do you know what I mean?
01:00:11
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:00:13
Keith
So, you know, being able to recognize when it is okay to pull back and when it is okay to accept that constructive criticism and no one understand that it's okay to fail and tomorrow's a new day and we'll try it again.
01:00:31
Keith
So we definitely get a lot of type A's for sure. Introverts, extroverts for sure, but definitely type A's. That is a predominant trait throughout every, in any sort of 911 profession and across the United States.
01:00:47
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:00:47
Keith
It doesn't matter what agency you go to, it's definitely a type A. Now, I will say, having that many type A's, it can definitely lead to some spirited discussions amongst each other.
01:00:58
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
01:01:00
Keith
And, you know, there's definitely a source of conflict there for sure.
01:01:00
The Jobs Podcast
Uh-huh.
01:01:05
Keith
But, you know, we ultimately are all brothers and sisters in the same family. And, you know, you work with these people you see them more often than you do your own families at times.
01:01:11
The Jobs Podcast
Sure.
01:01:17
Keith
So it's definitely a family familial, you know, of set up where you have your brothers, your sisters. There are times where you love them and you're like so proud of them.
01:01:29
Keith
But then there are times where you're just like,
01:01:29
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:01:31
Keith
I need to get away from these people.
01:01:33
Keith
I need a vacation, you know?
01:01:33
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:01:36
The Jobs Podcast
What types of technological advances have you seen in your time? And I know that this could probably go on for an hour in and of itself because with GPS and mapping and satellites and everything else under the sun, it seems like technology is in, in any occupation anymore, but specifically in yours, the,
01:01:58
The Jobs Podcast
The cell phone you were mentioning earlier has been a common thing. And are you able to triangulate where people are calling from? If maybe they can press 911 and get you on the phone, but they can't communicate, are you still able to find them? Or what other kinds of things have you seen in your career that have made 911 more efficient or better overall?
01:02:19
Keith
So like you said, I mean, cell phones in and of itself has been, is sent 911 ahead by light years compared to the landline.
01:02:31
Keith
Because before was just landline. So you had to physically pick up a phone that was connected to the wall and 911 and then speak to a person.
01:02:40
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:02:43
Keith
that's Whenever you called on a landline, your 911 center got the information of your phone number and where you were calling from because those were the two pieces of information that were communicated to 911.
01:02:59
Keith
Now, people are calling on cell phones. And so we get the phone number that you're calling from. And depending on the cell phone technology, it's called a wireless phase one, which is basically the tower that your cell phone hit off of.
01:03:15
Keith
which gives us a good-ish location, but it's not accurate in terms of where you are specifically.
01:03:23
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
01:03:24
Keith
But then we can get what is called wireless phase two, where we basically send information to the cell phone, be like, hey, give me a better location. And that sends out cell tower triangulation.
01:03:37
Keith
So we get a better location there. So what is happening right now is definitely revolution of technology in 911.
01:03:47
Keith
And it's called next gen 911. So a multitude of things are happening on the 911 level that are literally going to, like how cell phones took 911 light years from the landline.
01:04:01
Keith
Next gen 911 is going to take It light years from just the regular cell phone. So first and foremost,
01:04:10
Keith
if you think of just general location of what a cell phone can tell you, it gives you two-dimensional plot on a map. It does cell tower triangulation, and it can give us an approximate location of where you're at.
01:04:26
Keith
Not only would NextGen 911 be able to tell you the specific GPS that your phone is telling you, so I can know within five meters of where you specifically are at, but it'll also tell me three-dimensionally where you're at and why that is important.
01:04:43
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah.
01:04:47
Keith
So maybe not for Springfield, Missouri, because we don't have a lot of buildings that have a number of floors, but in a place like New York city, a place like Las Vegas, you other cities that have multi, uh, multi-level high rises in the city, it tells you the altitude.
01:05:07
Keith
And so it'd be able to determine they're on the 42nd floor. And that information is so crucial. If you think of, you know, I hate to cite a tragedy like Mandalay Bay shooter,
01:05:19
Keith
But one of the things that they really could not figure out is the elevation at which this person was shooting from.
01:05:26
Keith
But with with 911 calls coming in, they could take that information and say, OK, hey, with next gen 911, this person's calling on the 32nd floor or whatever floor and they're hearing gunshots like it's close.
01:05:26
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:05:27
The Jobs Podcast
Oh, yeah.
01:05:40
Keith
So, you know. being able to use that information and send units to, know, something like that in a more quicker, efficient manner that that's life saved, you know, in a major type of emergency.
01:05:54
Keith
The another another example, if you have a structure fire and someone stuck on the 42nd floor, but they don't know where they're at.
01:06:05
Keith
And if we're able to determine, Hey, There's a person on the 42nd floor based on what their cell phone is telling us. We can direct units to that floor and say, hey, there's a person who's surviving in there. We need to try to get them out. How can we get them to a place where first responders are at to guide them out of the building safely?
01:06:27
The Jobs Podcast
Hmm.
01:06:28
Keith
So that is a huge one right there. But then not only that, but there's a...
01:06:31
The Jobs Podcast
Well, was going to ask, how soon is that going to be live?
01:06:32
Keith
I'm sorry, go ahead.
01:06:36
The Jobs Podcast
Is that something that's a couple of years away or a year away or is it being implemented now?
01:06:42
Keith
So we've been in the process throughout the past couple of years of getting the necessary technological requirements, the licensing and all that stuff to build up to where we can we can make it live.
01:06:54
Keith
And each agency is different.
01:06:57
The Jobs Podcast
Okay.
01:06:57
Keith
And so we're hoping that within the next six months to a year, Springfield Green County could be have next gen 9-1-1.
01:06:57
The Jobs Podcast
Sweet.
01:07:08
Keith
So one of the other things that we also have a multitude of resources. So there's company that's called Rapid SOS. And so they piggyback off of 911 systems currently in place.
01:07:21
Keith
And they can tell us information about a cell phone, where it's at, the cell carrier, and use its active GPS to tell us sometimes within one meter, which is three feet, of where this person is at.
01:07:34
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:07:37
Keith
Not only that, but there are other pieces of technology to where if, if a person is lost out in the woods, they were on a, they were on a nature hike and they got lost and they don't know where they're at.
01:07:50
Keith
And for whatever reason, whenever they're calling nine one, one, we don't get good information because there's only one cell tower in the area.
01:07:59
Keith
I can initiate a text to them where. it will allow me access to their camera and to their, uh, GPS data to where I can locate them to, again, within one to five meter accuracy and guide them on where they need to go and how to get out or what, what they can do to be, to be located.
01:08:28
The Jobs Podcast
Wow.
01:08:29
Keith
So there's, there's it. And, and with that, we'll be able to, see and hear a lot of stuff what's going on. So if someone chooses, they can, they can call 911 via FaceTime, and they can show us what's going on the motor vehicle accident or, or, you know, the the incident that's occurring and have access to all of that.
01:08:54
Keith
And in that in and of itself is you will have so much more information at our fingertips to be able to get the necessary resources to people where they need it most. And that's just gonna be the tip of the iceberg. So we're right on the cusp of this kind of technological revolution with 911.
01:09:19
Keith
And it's gonna be really interesting to see where it goes. But on the flip side of that, one of the things that's definitely concerning for people that work in 911 You know, they've said, I've had to hear it my entire career.
01:09:35
Keith
I don't necessarily know if I want to see it. And so there, then it becomes an issue of, okay, well, can we blur it out?
01:09:40
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Right.
01:09:45
Keith
Like, so there are some programs that we have access to, to where it can blur out stuff. I, you, you have access to it, but I don't, I don't necessarily have to see it.
01:09:55
Keith
Then the other question is, well, what if there's something of evidentiary value to law enforcement? How do we store that? How do we get it to them in a manner to where they now have access to it? So there's a lot of questions still to be answered.
01:10:08
Keith
But yeah, we're definitely approaching some new ground in 911 in terms of technology to where we're going to be able to get resources to people faster and quicker because of next-gen 911, which ultimately is the goal.
01:10:26
The Jobs Podcast
What?
01:10:27
Keith
We want to be able to get any sort of enforcement, EMS, or fire response to a person quicker because that saves lives.
01:10:37
The Jobs Podcast
One of the things that I'm curious about as I was listening to you talk about the live stream thing that where you can see is then seems like the next logical step with that technology is if a fire crew hops into the fire engine or a law enforcement officer gets into their patrol car.
01:10:56
The Jobs Podcast
They're headed to a call. They may be familiar with the building because the fire department, at least my department, I think most are pretty good about pre-planning. You go to the buildings, you do a walkthrough because you don't want to show up to a fire. And this is the first time you've seen the inside of this building that's three blocks from your firehouse.
01:11:12
Keith
Right.
01:11:13
The Jobs Podcast
But I'm curious if there's going to be the ability to parlay some of that information over to the, or forward it to the responding apparatus to where I can see, okay, we've got this huge house.
01:11:13
Keith
Right.
01:11:27
The Jobs Podcast
The fire is, you know, on the CD side, CD corner, or it's in the upstairs bedroom or downstairs.
01:11:35
The Jobs Podcast
Is that, is that something that's been discussed lately?
01:11:39
Keith
So I believe as soon as we have access to it, it would be part of the cat record. So you guys would be able to you.
01:11:45
The Jobs Podcast
Oh. Right. Yeah.
01:11:48
Keith
You wouldn't be able to I don't think you would be able to watch it live as we do.
01:11:54
Keith
But to be able to, you know, have it in CAD to where you can see still shot or, you know, someone, because if someone texts, they can text 911 right now.
01:12:07
Keith
But if they text in a picture and, you know, it's of a house fire, that could be part of the CAD record where you can see, okay, it's on the CD side and there's definitely flames showing.
01:12:18
Keith
So instead of waiting to get there,
01:12:18
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. There Yeah.
01:12:21
Keith
and calling it a confirmed working house fire, let's go ahead and start those additional resources that we need because we already know it's a house fire.
01:12:28
Keith
And so think it'll afford agencies, it gives agencies more information before they even arrive on scene.
01:12:38
Keith
And so they can determine what the best course of action would be.
01:12:43
Keith
And again, The ultimate idea is to save lives. It's to minimize the risk of property damage. And if we can send the most apt kind of resources to people that fit that particular situation, that's a win every single time.
01:13:06
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:13:08
The Jobs Podcast
This line of work that you, I guess you could say you stumbled into it. It wasn't where you were initially planning to go. But as I listened to you, I can tell that you've found your groove and you're good at what you do.
01:13:23
The Jobs Podcast
What advice would you give to someone who's looking at this career? If let's say it's outside of someone officially coming in and saying, I'd like to know more about this job, but your neighbor comes over and says, Hey, Keith, I was thinking about doing what you do.
01:13:39
The Jobs Podcast
What, what do you think? What, what would be the first key pieces of advice that you would give them?
01:13:46
Keith
The first piece of advice I would say is be ready to accept failure. And that's not, and that's not something that a lot of people want to hear because what we do requires failure.
01:14:05
Keith
So you can get better at what you do and be the best version of yourself. And so a lot of people,
01:14:12
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:14:14
Keith
aren't willing to accept failure. And it sounds counterintuitive that in something where high stakes, where there are such high stakes that we would accept failure. And it's not a failure of, accept the outcome of failure, but know that failure is a step in the process of getting it right.
01:14:41
Keith
So that would be the first piece of advice that I would say is to know that you're going to fail. And that's okay. Because through the process of failure, you will become good at what you do.
01:14:56
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:14:56
Keith
The second thing is
01:14:59
Keith
have thick skin. You need thick skin.
01:15:04
Keith
And that's not to say that you need be able to not find a way to release a lot of the stress and the negative aspects that come from the job, because there certainly are a lot dealing with emergency situations, it can burn a person out really quick.
01:15:23
Keith
But being able to know that this is that person's emergency, it's not mine,
01:15:32
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah.
01:15:33
Keith
and separating that out and still being like, I can provide the best customer service, the best care, the best level of compassion and do everything.
01:15:45
Keith
But no one understand it's their emergency. It's not mine to where you're not internalizing it because that, that'll just burn you out even, even faster.
01:15:56
Keith
So that thick skin is definitely needed because, again, it's emergency type situations, but there are people that are less than friendly when they call 911.
01:16:07
The Jobs Podcast
That was, yeah.
01:16:08
Keith
I know it's a big shocker there, but there have been times where I have been cussed out.
01:16:10
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:16:13
Keith
I have been called names. I have been told that I am worthless.
01:16:18
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:16:19
Keith
I've been told that... You know, I'll end up killing someone by the end of my shift or I'm glad this wasn't a real emergency or else I would have already been dead.
01:16:29
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
01:16:30
Keith
You know, so you just have to you have to be able to understand that what this person is going through is their emergency.
01:16:39
Keith
It's not mine. And a lot of times when people are in situations like that, they lash out. They'll say things that they don't necessarily mean or whatever.
01:16:47
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah.
01:16:49
Keith
And it doesn't mean that it can't affect you as a person, but to know and understand and to be able to just have it be like water on a duck's back.
01:17:01
Keith
Just let it roll off and not even...
01:17:04
Keith
not even get into your psyche at all. I mean, being able to do that is, is huge. And then also final thing of being able to accept, you know, like I said, the failure, but constructive criticism, because there are people for whatever reason, they just, they, they, they think constructive criticism is tearing you down.
01:17:29
Keith
And it's like, no, I'm not, I'm not trying to tear you down. I'm highlighting where, where you as a person can grow and learn and become a better version of yourself here at 911. And as long as people know that, I think they will be immediately set up for success.
01:17:49
The Jobs Podcast
I think sometimes constructive criticism, the recipient doesn't realize that the person delivering it, I care enough. I want you to succeed.
01:18:00
The Jobs Podcast
If I didn't care, would just let you fail and then you'd be gone and I wouldn't have to worry about anymore. But I want you to succeed. So I'm giving you this advice that Stop looking at it as you're getting chastised and I'm trying to help you be successful.
01:18:17
The Jobs Podcast
I think that's a lot of times the message is lost because of their focusing on I'm in trouble.
01:18:17
Keith
Right.
01:18:24
Keith
Right. Right. Or, or I got yelled at because I did something wrong.
01:18:29
The Jobs Podcast
Right.
01:18:29
Keith
And, I, I remember I gave trainee a very lengthy evaluation one time and they were right on the cusp of, of being released.
01:18:40
Keith
And, the training manager at the time had asked me to to sit with them because they weren't sure whether they should be released or if they needed some more time.
01:18:51
Keith
And the training and education manager knew that I was really good at documenting things that people needed to work on and also do it in a manner that was not deemed as like fixating on all the bad things.
01:19:09
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:19:10
Keith
And so I wrote a very lengthy evaluation on this person. And after my observation period, I recommended that they spend more time in training.
01:19:20
Keith
And I had a very lengthy conversation with the person. And I said, this is in no way, shape or form embark on you as a person. This is not me saying you are a failure.
01:19:36
Keith
This is me spending like you said, my time documenting, highlighting all the things that you did well, highlighting the things that you need need to work on and grow on, because I do care and I want you to succeed.
01:19:52
Keith
And I feel like in order to succeed, you need to work on these things. So that way we all succeed because cliche as it sounds, you are as strong as your weakest link.
01:19:59
The Jobs Podcast
you
01:20:05
Keith
And You know, don't want anyone stepping out onto the floor thinking that they are the weak link because then you get into your own head a lot. You can make mistakes and, you know, it's hard to come back from a major mistake at 911. You know, like just personally, there are some people that, you know, they make a mistake and just, it eats them up and they can't do it anymore. So we try to put people in a position where, where,
01:20:35
Keith
they are hitting the floor ready to succeed. And being able to have the understanding that they're to take it professionally, not personally, I think that is a huge thing for them to have.
01:20:51
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. You know, Keith, when I was making a list of all the occupations that I wanted to interview the 911 operators or dispatchers, whichever term is the more current one, you were on that list pretty quick because, like I said at the beginning, I've been in the fire service for 26 years now.
01:21:14
The Jobs Podcast
Most all of the people that I've talked with in dispatch, I've never personally met. But They've always been there. And when you've got a house fire or a medical call or a car wreck that's just going sideways, I speak from experience. And I know that I speak for a lot of other people when it's really nice to have someone on the other end of that radio that knows what they're doing, that's calm, collected, and is ready to help in any way that they can.
01:21:46
The Jobs Podcast
And I'm very grateful to all the dispatchers out there. You do not get the credit that you deserve. But I know full well, if you go to any firehouse or go up to any patrol car and ask the officer or firefighter, what do you think about dispatch?
01:22:03
The Jobs Podcast
You're going to get rave reviews. And I don't think we've communicated that enough to you. So I, for one, thank you very much for everything that you do. Thanks for always being there on the other end of the radio.
01:22:15
The Jobs Podcast
And I really appreciate you taking the time to share what your career is like. And I'm hoping I can highlight that for other folks and get you some good candidates.
01:22:24
Keith
Well, thank you, first and foremost, for reaching out to me. And, you know, it's weird how we can work so closely with people amongst the other agencies. Like I said, nine law enforcement, 13 fire protection districts.
01:22:44
Keith
I know don't, on the law enforcement side, they sign in by their names. And so I can see their I can see what radio number they are that day and their names.
01:22:57
Keith
A lot of them I've never met. And just like how I've never probably met a lot of people with, you know, on the engine company at Station 8 or, you know, or Rescue One or anything like that.
01:23:08
The Jobs Podcast
Mm-hmm.
01:23:12
Keith
But the amount of care and compassion and dedication that we all have to making sure that we put you all in the best possible scenario for success because ultimately we feel responsible for whether or not you guys and gals go home at the end of your shift. And, and, and we definitely want that to happen. So, you know, it's, it's, it's very much likewise where we appreciate all of you and what you guys do.
01:23:40
Keith
But it's so funny how you can work an entire career and never physically meet someone, but you can talk to them every single day.
01:23:45
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's something unique to our line of work. But and and you can be honest, you like dispatching for fire more than you do police.
01:23:52
Keith
Very much.
01:23:57
The Jobs Podcast
Right. I mean, that's goes without saying.
01:23:59
Keith
You know, it depends. There are times where I'm on top of my fire dispatch game.
01:24:05
The Jobs Podcast
Yeah.
01:24:05
Keith
There are times where I feel like I'm on top of my law enforcement game. I like just me personally, the SPD admin channel. I like the, the kind of busy work of confirming on warrants, the stolen vehicles, kind of the getting, providing like the kind of supplemental stuff on the backend that you do for, for law enforcement calls.
01:24:28
Keith
But honestly, I just, I love what I do. So it doesn't matter if I'm sitting on fire dispatch or if I'm, you know, dispatching law enforcement, fire personnel, or if I'm in charge and I'm, you know, the,
01:24:39
Keith
the conductor of the on floor operations and make sure everything's like, I just, I love what I do. And I think being there for any length of time shows that you love what you do. I mean, there there are days where it's definitely more trying than others. And there are days where you kind of,
01:25:00
Keith
have those, you know, people that walk you back from the brink kind of conversations, because it seems like Murphy's Law is in full effect.
01:25:08
Keith
And you're like, what am I doing here? I'm worthless today. I can't do anything right. But ultimately, you know, I love what I do. And I'm so very fortunate to work with some very amazing people who love what they do. And they share the same kind of mindset and mission of helping people out.
01:25:26
Keith
I mean, cause ultimately that's what it boils down to.
01:25:30
The Jobs Podcast
I know my next shift, I'm going to be listening for you, Keith. All right. So.
01:25:34
Keith
Well, I'll, I'll have to sit fire dispatch because we, so whenever we do training, people are training there all the time.
01:25:37
The Jobs Podcast
All right.
01:25:41
Keith
And then people like to sit there for overtime. So they get to pick where they sit when they're on overtime. So if I actually get assigned fire dispatch, it's a rarity, but I'll, I'll, I'll look forward to hearing your voice on the other end.
01:25:54
The Jobs Podcast
All right, man. Thanks a lot for your time. I really appreciate it. Uh-huh.
01:25:58
Keith
right. Not a problem. Thank you.