y name is Jeanette Zavala. I’m 35 and
I’ve worked as a 911 dispatcher for ten
years. I work in South Pasadena, which is
a city of about 26,000 people in Los Ange-
les County. I work three 12-hour shifts a
week, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday. I chose those days
because I prefer going out on weekdays
— when it’s not so busy — to weekends.
I wake up at around 4:45 a.m. and ar-
rive at the South Pasadena Police Depart-
ment an hour later. The first thing I do is
change into my uniform. Then I go to the
communication center, which is the com-
mand center for dispatchers. It has three
desks, each with a computer, touch screen,
and computer-aided dispatch (CAD) sys-
tem. We use this system to log every 911
call that comes in.
My first task is to get briefed by the
dispatcher from the previous shift. Some-
times, people call and assume you’re the
person they spoke to before, so we like to
know what’s going on and to be prepared.
The briefing takes about ten minutes.
Then I put on my headset and log on, so
that the other dispatcher can log off and
leave.
The officers who work here have the
same shifts as dispatchers, so they alsoassume [E(su:m]
, annehmen
beat [bi:t]
, Runde
break-in [(breIk In]
, Einbruch
dispatcher [dI(spÄtS&r]
, Disponent(in)
get briefed [get (bri:ft]
, kurz informiert werdengym [dZIm]
, Fitnessstudio
log [lO:g]
, protokollieren
log on/off [lO:g (A:n/(A:f]
, sich an/abmelden
radio [(reIdiEU]
, hier: Funk(gerät)
split [splIt]
, geteiltsuspicious [sE(spISEs]
, verdächtig
theft [Teft]
, Diebstahl
upset [Vp(set]
, verärgertIn an
emergency
Was genau machen eigentlich die Mitabeiter
einer Notrufleitstelle? TALITHA LINEHAN
hat sich informiert.
MEDIUM US AUDIO PLUSFotos: Jill Simpson; Damir Khabirov, dem10, Lindrik, ronstik, Ryan Herron, Afonkin_Yuriy/iStock.comSpotlight 9/2019 A DAY IN MY LIFEA DAY IN MY LIFE
M
40
have a briefing at 6 a.m. It takes between 15 and 45 minutes.
When it’s over, they give us a log, telling us, for example, which
officer is going to be on which beat that day, what unit they’ll be
in, and what radio number they’ll have. We have four beats in the
city and about seven officers on duty in the day.As dispatchers, we answer both non-emergency and 911 calls.
We get about 10 to 15 emergency (911) calls a day, mostly about
medical emergencies or to report break-ins, thefts, or suspicious
people. When a 911 call comes in, the first thing I ask is the per-
son’s location. This is the most important piece of information
because even if you know everything else, but don’t know where
to send the officers, you can’t help the person.
Next, I ask the person what’s going on. I try to get as many
details as possible from them. People sometimes get upset at us
because they think we ask too many questions, but the more in-
formation we have, the better we can help. As I’m talking to the
person, I’m also typing the information into the system. If it’s an
emergency call, meaning that someone’s life is in danger, I put
the call out to the officer as quickly as possible.
We have a three-minute response time in this city, and 30 sec-
onds to a minute of that is taken up by the phone call and getting
the information to the officer. Dispatchers need to have what we
call a “split ear,” because we have to be able to listen to the 911
caller on the headset and to the officer on the radio at the same
time. Not everybody can do that!There are two dispatchers on duty in the day. We get two
15-minute breaks and a 45-minute lunch break, but we normally
eat at our desk, so that our partner doesn’t have to work alone. At
the end of my shift, I brief the dispatcher on the next shift. Then I
go to the gym and work out for ten to 15 minutes. This is a great
way for me to de-stress.
My boyfriend is a police officer, so we have the same schedule.
We love going to concerts and we love to travel. We just came
back from two weeks in Europe; we went to Dublin, London, and
Amsterdam. We’re thinking of going to the Turks and Caicos
Islands next.