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I was interviewing some city sanitation workers the other day regarding a possible mechanical issue with a garbage truck that might have injured a truck operator.
I won't bore you with the details. Some of these guys I talked with had been working full-time for their city for 20-35 years. One of them made a comment that it seemed like everyone was trying to jump on the "teacher-police-fire" bandwagon. He said it seemed like some employees (not all, but an increasing number) expected others to genuflect whenever they entered the room. "Let's say nobody gets their trash picked up next Monday...do you know what it would be like around town by Friday?" the man made a strong point ...and the word "hero" is almost meaningless now |
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Most likely female based on the infinity sticker doodad on the bottom right.
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Ahhhhh dispatchers
A Local regional ambulance company I do service work for issues it’s dispatchers 5.11 BDU’s all embroidered with reflective “EMS RESPONDER” logos in big block font on the back Not one of these people is under 350lbs. They had to give them their own lobby because the food delivery people would get lost. All of them carry shears and tourniquets. All of them signed up for that first responder cell phone network. 75% drive retired PD chargers, or blacked out civilian trim explorers. Out of 14 years working at that site the only complaints I’ve received were from that self righteous department. They nitpick everything |
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I was interviewing some city sanitation workers the other day regarding a possible mechanical issue with a garbage truck. I won't bore you with the details. Some of these guys had been working for their city for 20-35 years. One of them made a comment that it seemed like everyone was trying to jump on the "teacher-police-firefighter" bandwagon. He said it seemed like some employees expected others to genuflect whenever they entered the room. "Let's say nobody gets their trash picked up next Monday...do you know what it would be like around town by Friday?" the man made a strong point ...and the word "hero" is almost meaningless now View Quote |
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The big push now is to have dispatchers considered 'first responders' (I think TX started on Sept. 1).
While I admit they have to deal with and hear some fucked up things, they are not first responders. |
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I respect dispatchers who do their job well. Out of the 7 my department employs only one has earned that respect. He is also the only one who keeps himself in shape by working out and doing pushups in the dispatch room when call volume is low. He also voluntarily participates in the yearly police physical we have to do. Every other dispatcher is 300lbs or bigger and they are all completely worthless. Those are the ones who push for dispatchers to be considered first responders.
About 6 months ago I was talking to one of them and they said an officer couldn't do their job because it was so complicated. Well... little did they know when I started the department required officers to spend 2 weeks training in dispatch so we could fill in if needed. I volunteered to run dispatch for an hour and did it with them watching while my shift mates went and did all they could to overwhelm me. After that hour with zero issues I handed them their headset back and left. I haven't heard a complaint from that one since. |
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The big push now is to have dispatchers considered 'first responders' (I think TX started on Sept. 1). While I admit they have to deal with and hear some fucked up things, they are not first responders. View Quote |
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I work IT for the county here. For about four years, I was the tech for our 911 dispatch.
I'll tell you right now, that's not a job I would want to do. They talk with the gamut of people, from dull eyed mouth breathers, to busybody old ladies, to kids playing with mommy's cell phone, to somebody having the worst day of their life, to somebody having the last day of their lives. While keeping their computers and associated stuff running, I heard a lot of shit go down, from a woman who found her baby blue and cold, to a guy who called and said "I'm at 1234 anystreet. Send the police and the coroner." BANG (sound of phone falling to the floor) I've seen dispatchers collapse into tears after calls, and I've seen them hang up and laugh like loons. I've seen the defensive, cynical sense of humor they develop. We've had three dispatchers suicide in the last ten years. And yeah, some of them are kind of goofy. I don't care, as long as they do the damn job. One of our dispatchers had stickers made up that said "911 dispatcher, defeating Darwin on a daily basis" There's a lot of truth to that statement. |
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Stereotype much? Did a dispatcher steal your cookies or did they send your annoying ass on a shitty call or something lol? Plenty of Dispatchers are overweight. High stress sedentary jobs are a perfect environment for it. Shall we discuss how many overweight police officers there are? Or how many cops do everything they can to get out of doing their job? How many of them are on a power trip? Is it the norm? No it's not, so a decent person doesn't label all officers that way. Saying an entire group of people are a "Bunch of fat customer service reps" makes you appear to have the same mentality as all the other "cops suck", "repubs are bad", "Conservatives are fascists" people. View Quote |
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Billy bad ass right there. There’s usually one or two dispatchers in every PSAP that wear 5.11 pants and a thin blue line punisher shirt or something ironic like that. if you ask them what they do, they're basically door kickers with a headset. Edit - the majority are great people that have a sense of community service and are good at their jobs. But when you meet that special dispatcher, they’re speicial. View Quote |
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I want one for HVAC tech. It needs to have a skull also and be in multi cam, but the multi cam green has to be R22 green.
That would be awesome. |
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I know a dispatcher for a major metro area. She has a personalized license plate that is in some kind of dispatch code that a dispatcher, or more importantly, a police officer would understand. I've always assumed it was a subtle way to get out of tickets. She's physically fit, not 350 pounds.
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That’s as bad as the TBL “wife” sticker I saw on a vehicle the other day. Why would anyone want to advertise they’re a cops wife? That’s like painting a giant target on your car for every criminal fuck out there View Quote |
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Dispatchers in our area are almost universally middle aged women who are 50-300 lbs overweight. YMMV
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Quoted:
Stereotype much? Did a dispatcher steal your cookies or did they send your annoying ass on a shitty call or something lol? Plenty of Dispatchers are overweight. High stress sedentary jobs are a perfect environment for it. Shall we discuss how many overweight police officers there are? Or how many cops do everything they can to get out of doing their job? How many of them are on a power trip? Is it the norm? No it's not, so a decent person doesn't label all officers that way. Saying an entire group of people are a "Bunch of fat customer service reps" makes you appear to have the same mentality as all the other "cops suck", "repubs are bad", "Conservatives are fascists" people. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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I'm actually quite surprised that person was able to put their food down long enough to put the sticker on. Lord knows they have to always talk on the radio with a mouth full of donuts. Bunch of fat customer service reps is typically all they are. Did a dispatcher steal your cookies or did they send your annoying ass on a shitty call or something lol? Plenty of Dispatchers are overweight. High stress sedentary jobs are a perfect environment for it. Shall we discuss how many overweight police officers there are? Or how many cops do everything they can to get out of doing their job? How many of them are on a power trip? Is it the norm? No it's not, so a decent person doesn't label all officers that way. Saying an entire group of people are a "Bunch of fat customer service reps" makes you appear to have the same mentality as all the other "cops suck", "repubs are bad", "Conservatives are fascists" people. Many years ago, we had a police chase and an OIS shooting going on at the same time, at least a dozen priority one calls backed up, and our dispatcher kept her monotone, keeping track of everyone and doing one hell of a job. |
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Pulled off the interstate for a pit stop. I'll admit I don't understand it. A skull with headphones? https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/214834/20190905_175119_jpg-1080351.JPG View Quote |
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Headset because well, they use one. Skull because whoever that is is dead inside due to that suckass job. View Quote Dispatchers usually only last about a year or two in that job. It's incredibly hard and stressful. Lots of undiagnosed PTSD from doing it. It is a suck ass job. |
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I saw a punisher skull with the blue line sticker on a brodozer the other day, and I genuinely thought to myself : "wtf does that even signify?"
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Quoted: Somebody sits behind a radio. Notice I said typically..... there are some good ones, but the stereotype is about 95% accurate. View Quote Do you sit on the other end of the radio? |
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Dispatchers have a high stress and thankless job. Good ones are amazing, calm under pressure and keep track of a bunch of events at a time. In rare occasions lives are on the line. I wouldn’t want the job. They want to feel good about themselves, no problem with me.
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Is there a color for Engineers @SCW ?
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I feel for them. They do have a tough job having to listen to people call and not being able to do a thing about it, and a lot of times they don't get resolution to whatever dramatic event it was. But.....
We got this one guy who spends his time trying to give us directions to hydrants(they are on the computer, not needed, plus we got eyes and drive our district) and he tries to predict your transmission. And sometimes he will prematurely clear you from a call because he thinks that is the case. While he is doing all this he misses traffic from units and they get ignored until they repeat it. That sucks if your traffic was really important. Then he will answer you with excuses why he missed your traffic. Overall our dispatchers are good people, but this guy grinds my gears. Crappy rant over. |
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Quoted: Is there a color for Engineers @SCW ? View Quote Architects are the equivalent of these hot-shot call center head-set jockeys. They think they are engineers, but they can't do the maths. Totally stolen valor, we should have a universal background check on our Engineer with Honor stickers. |
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I feel for them. They do have a tough job having to listen to people call and not being able to do a thing about it, and a lot of times they don't get resolution to whatever dramatic event it was. But..... We got this one guy who spends his time trying to give us directions to hydrants(they are on the computer, not needed, plus we got eyes and drive our district) and he tries to predict your transmission. And sometimes he will prematurely clear you from a call because he thinks that is the case. While he is doing all this he misses traffic from units and they get ignored until they repeat it. That sucks if your traffic was really important. Then he will answer you with excuses why he missed your traffic. Overall our dispatchers are good people, but this guy grinds my gears. Crappy rant over. View Quote |
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Well, with the amount of people some of them kill fucking up, maybe thats appropriate
Last time I spent any length of time on the phone with a dispatcher ended up with guns drawn on people because it turns out they'd never actually, you know, told any deputies fucking anything, so help wasn't actually on the way. Deputy wasn't amused either. |
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Dispatchers have a high stress and thankless job. Good ones are amazing, calm under pressure and keep track of a bunch of events at a time. In rare occasions lives are on the line. I wouldn’t want the job. They want to feel good about themselves, no problem with me. View Quote I volunteered as a sheriff department cadet when I was a kid. One of the many requirements was to put in at least two shifts in dispatch before being able to ride on patrol. The longest 30 seconds of my life was when a felony traffic stop one night for expired plates and owner coming back with a warrant. A second patrol marked arrived just as the first officer keyed his mic just long enough to say “Gun. Gun...” Radio went dead, and the fucking air sucked out of dispatch. One dispatch called in more units and dirrected all radio traffic to backup channel. Then we all sat there waiting... For fucking forever... They finally came back with one in custody. The stress of patrol was easier for me to deal with, than sitting in dispatch. I hated working in dispatch. |
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911 dispatchers are not nice people. At least that one In Fort smith View Quote I'm surprised she would even talk to me after she got my location. Sounded like she wanted to end the call and go do something else. |
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I know a despatcher woman who doesn’t speak of her work.
The one time she did, she was in tears immediately. There are good ones out there who just want to be the ones to help people when they are in their worst moments. |
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Quoted: It's a shit job. Half the calls are ass hats that should have called the non emergency line, or called someone else entirely. Like a plumber, or a shrink. The other half of the calls you are talking to a frantic person on the phone who really needs help and probably won't get it in time... and you are stuck in fucking dispatch completely helpless to those in need. Be it the public, or your own patrol. I volunteered as a sheriff department cadet when I was a kid. One of the many requirements was to put in at least two shifts in dispatch before being able to ride on patrol. The longest 30 seconds of my life was when a felony traffic stop one night for expired plates and owner coming back with a warrant. A second patrol marked arrived just as the first officer keyed his mic just long enough to say “Gun. Gun...” Radio went dead, and the fucking air sucked out of dispatch. One dispatch called in more units and dirrected all radio traffic to backup channel. Then we all sat there waiting... For fucking forever... They finally came back with one in custody. The stress of patrol was easier for me to deal with, than sitting in dispatch. I hated working in dispatch. View Quote It is also easily the lowest on the totem pole in the entire police department. Like barely above the janitor low. On top of that, it is a shitty paying, dead end, high stress job. My department could barely find anyone willing to take it. And why would they? You could go slap meat on a tray at Rudys for $13/hr and smoke a joint when you are done, why put up with dispatch and all it's bullshit for $2/hr more? It's kind of a fucked up situation really. On another note, I think the cure for anti gun people is work a week in dispatch at a metro area. If you aren't carrying after that, there is no fixing you. |
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How old did the driver look? When you are new to public safety you feel like you are 10 feet tall and bulletproof and like to fly that flag high. After a while, almost everyone tones it down to the level that is required to maybe get out of a ticket and begins to feel empty inside. View Quote Young cops want everyone to know they are a cop Old cops want no one to know they are a cop |
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View Quote Quoted:
https://i.imgur.com/H6K2QnX.jpg View Quote |
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Everyone is an operator now.
I wonder if they get that blue label deal for Glocks too |
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One of the neighbors down the street is flying the dispatcher flag. Of course, I had no idea what it meant until my wife looked it up. We were driving by, and I was like "Oh, good lord, there's a thin yellow line now, whose dicks are we supposed to start sucking next?"
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