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The most I do feel is that we really are helping people, we truly are. I mean, I have people who call in. They hate the police, and yet, at the end of the phone call, they’re telling me thank you, or they’re telling me thank you for just taking the time to listen. Thank you for helping us. You know, the officers sometimes don’t get thanked, and we’re getting called and we’re getting thanked and told that we helped to change something or a bad part of their lives. Also with people who, you know, have gone through hard times in lives, and they call us and they get into the system, and we take the time to talk to them. I think, as a small city, we have that luxury here to speak to people. They’re not just calling; they’re not just another number. We actually can take the time and have a conversation, and I know it makes a difference. They may not say it, but you know when you’re talking to someone that you’re making a difference in their life.
The least favorite thing about it is probably, let’s see... It’s a very large workload and it’s a very stressful job. Sometimes I don’t like how the public does see law enforcement, and how they do think that we, as dispatchers, are asking questions that don’t have relevancy. What I hear a lot about dispatchers is we don’t care, you know, or why are you asking me that dumb question, or just get here already. Sometimes the callers, I feel, aren’t educated enough in dispatch. They don’t understand why we’re asking questions. They don’t understand why we may sound like we’re emotionless, because we’re really just trying to get them the help without — I don’t know how to explain it — without letting our emotions get involved, and I think when they don’t hear us crying with them, they think that we don’t care. So my part of it is that I wish that they knew we do care, but to get the proper information to the officer, we just have to think about everything logically and without emotion. And I truly believe that if the public were told why we do what we do, they may have more patience with us on the phones.