hey never know what it will be, but the dispatchers at the Lincoln County E-911 office are at the ready for the ring.
On this particular Thursday, three women were manning the mics in a small office tucked away within the maze of hallways behind the main entrance of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. Each sat at a desk before a multi-screen panel. Each of the six screens serves a purpose and sometimes they’ll use more than one on a call.
A new baby girl was welcomed into the world on Thursday night with the help of Ambulance emergency medical dispatcher.
Sarah Barczai received a call from an anxious father whose wife was in labour with seventh child.
The parents and their children were driving to the hospital when the new baby de make her arrival faster than expected.
For emergency services dispatchers, it all starts with a phone call. The number is one of the shortest but arguably the most important: 911.
When someone in need calls 911 within Kingston city limits, they are instantly connected to the communications staff at the Central Emergency Reporting Bureau located at Kingston Police Headquarters. Because the line is only supposed to be for emergencies, there are zero introductions exchanged, as time is of the essence:
Greg LaFrancois says “At this point, there’s another option in The County. Presque Isle Fire Department runs a 9-1-1 service, and so the towns – some towns have already reached out to Presque Isle and signed up for 9-1-1 service, and then the others will be doing that I imagine now.”
He says the problem is there are two 9-1-1 providers in an area that can only support one. The decision was made to let the fire department handle local calls, with the hospital focusing on long-distance transports.
The Florence Police Department is looking for people to join their Communications team.
According to Florence PD, dispatchers serve as the backbone of the department’s call for service coordination and undergo an array of training in leading communication technologies. Applicants must have the ability to multitask and conduct dispatching responsibilities along with the ability to react quickly and calmly to emergency situations presented while dispatching.
When a Sun City West resident calls the Posse about a situation, the person who answers the phone becomes a conduit between the caller and a unit in the field.
The dispatcher takes all information from the caller and communicates key data to patrol units in the field. Sometimes that requires the dispatcher to re-connect with the original caller.
Though there are two separate posse organizations, the Sheriff’s Posse of Sun City West and the Sun City West Posse, they both use the same phone number and dispatchers and follow the same patrol protocols. The two posses patrol at different times. Some members are in both posses, and others only in one.
