Central Dispatch is what I call The Invisible Link to all the Emergency 911 Agencies in Sherman Co.
seldom seen by anyone, dispatchers are just a voice of the airwaves or on the phone. Almost every call for help begins with someone notifying a dispatcher. Exceptions may be a citizen flagging down a Police Officer,
Deputy,or Kansas Trooper to report a problem. But I imagine all would agree the majority of calls
for help start with a dispatcher.
With this being a rural area our Dispatch Center is small compared to what K.C. or Denver would
have. Yet we are well equiped and computers help in alot of ways. But the bottom line is using
your common sense in trying to handle all the different type of calls that come in. There are
guidelines and protocols to follow in dispatching to the various departments. But no matter how
much training you receive or how long you have been doing the job, something will come up that
you haven't ever had before. Then you try to do the best you can with what you have to work with.
We normally work alone which is fine most of the time but occassionally an event happens and the
phones light up. It can get interesting with 6 lines ringing and you are trying to answer plus
get whatever agency is needed sent to the call. Plus the times when you have to send 2 or 3
different departments which involves having to page out more than one department. Plus while you are
talking to people making the report you also have to be logging the event into the computer to
keep everyone's times correct. Then it is usually an officer that gets to the scene first and
they may need additional help or Chief or Sheriff called. So just remember if sometimes the
dispatcher seems slow in answering your call it may be because they are really BUSY.
Dispatchers are also trained in Emergency Medical Dispatch which means we can help people handle
a medical problem until the EMTs arrive. There is a set of protocol cards kept by the 911 phones
to use for just such events. Luckily we have a good ambulance system and first responders that
get to the scenes promptly. Within Goodland the P.D. officers are quick to respond to medical
emergency calls. The Sheriff Deputies also repond within the city limits and in the county to
medical emergenies. Sometimes though with the big area the S.O. have to cover they can be several miles
away from the emergency.
Dispatchers monitor several different radio freqencies, besides all the ones for the 911
Departments in Sherman Co. there is also city street, county road, Cheyenne Co.,plus the one
used by Wallace Co whenver they need to contact dispatch. There is a scanner to use for even
more departments such as Colby/Thomas Co.
The 911 phones will bring up an address for where the caller is calling from when they use a
landline phone. Sometime in the future we will be able to locate where the 911 cell phone calls
are being made from. The computer to help map out the calls for cell phones is set up. Now
we are waiting on the Cell Phone companies to complete the technology. In this area I believe
the most help this will be is for calls on I-70. People see an accident or something and call
911 but then they aren't sure where they are. There have been times someone thought they were
in Sherman Co. but find out they are in Thomas Co. or even in Colorado.
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I will now attempt to list some of the types of calls dispatch can receive and what the
dispatcher has to do with the call:
Injury Accident within Goodland City Limits
Notify PD Officer
Page EMS
Page Rescue Unit
Give Medical Instructions to caller if needed.
Log everything so all times are correct.
Answer all calls to dispatch from all responding units.
Will probably have to run regristration and driver's license on involved parties.
Call wrecker/s if needed, which involves another program to see which one is next on call out list.
Injury Accident outside of Goodland City Limits but still in Sherman Co.
Notify a Sheriff's Deputy or KHP depending on location of accident. KHP is notified first for accidents on I-70 or 27 hwy. A deputy can and will work accidents on I-70/27 if they on duty and no Trooper is out working. But if it happens to be during a time neither are working, dispatch teletypes KHP dispatch to have a trooper called out for the accidents on I-70/27 hwy.
Deputies work all other accidents in the county even if they have to be called out.
Dispatch then handles it the same as accident within Goodland.
It should be noted that deputies and troopers can and have helped or worked accidents inside
Goodland city limits. KHP can work anywhere within the state and the S.O. anywhere within Sherman
Co. Protocol just determines who gets called first.
House Fire
Get the correct location of fire which may not be where the call is coming from.
Find out if anyone is still in house, ask caller to stay on line if safe to gather more info
after getting fire units paged.
Page out correct Fire Department.
Page out EMS for stand by.
If caller is still on line try to find out about any dangers such as chemicals or propane tanks
close to fire.
Notify P.D. officer or Deputy.
Call weather office or check T.V. for wind speeds.
Log all times for the various Departments called.
I believe this is enough to give you an idea of some of the things a dispatcher has to do to get
a call handled. Later on after this site gets going more I will try to list more on how things
can be in dispatch. One thing more about the above scenarios that wasn't listed is usually for
any accident or fire there are many more than just one call telling about it. So in between doing
what has to be done promptly you are also taking several more calls.
At this time of this writting the Communication Center is having staff changes. Mary Messamore, the previous
director has taken a different job in Hutchinson, KS. Crissy Conger is filling in until the County Commissioners
decide who they will hire fulltime to replace Mary. So we are short handed but will have 1 new person starting
soon to train as a dispatcher.
As of time of this writting, 12-05-05 the following is the short list of dispatchers. Also since the above was written Crissy was hired by the County Commissioners to be the Fulltime Director of Dispatch. Congratulations Crissy!
- Crissy Conger..............................Director
- Bonnie King.................................Dispatcher 1
- Darcy Frazier...............................Dispatcher 1
- John Stroyek...............................Dispatcher 1
- Julie Crotinger..............................Dispatcher 1
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