Dispatch Roles: Leading From the Console

Anyone who has called 911 knows telecommunicators play an integral role in an emergency response. However, their influence extends far beyond the initial dispatch.

In this Q&A, Kim Clark, a public safety professional of more than 30 years, shares her perspective on why individuals in dispatch roles are leaders in their agencies, how they can lean into leadership, and how to address some of the biggest challenges facing 911 communications centers today.

Please share your public safety background.

CLARK: I started dispatching back in the '80s. I discovered my first telecommunicator job from an ad in the newspaper. I found that being part of that public safety family allowed me to support my community in really interesting ways.

I went on to work in community relations for 10 years, where I focused on public speaking, public education, problem-solving, and crime prevention through environmental design — all kinds of cool things.

From there, I went back into dispatch, and I was able to apply the skills I learned in crime prevention and community relations to dispatch through training and certifications. I achieved my emergency number professional certification, CMCP. I was a national trainer for NENA, the National Emergency Number Association, where I taught leadership and change management. I’ve also worked at a very large metropolitan agency that supported multiple public safety agencies.

I started a 911 center from scratch in a small town of about 40,000 people. It was single discipline; we only did law. I was the 911 Director for the New Mexico State Police, where I consolidated 11 911 centers down to three. I've worked in a tribal environment. Up until recently, for the first time in my career, I was serving the community where my family lives in a county-wide dispatch center that supports city law, city fire, county law, and seven volunteer agencies.

I've been very blessed throughout my career to have diverse experiences. It allows me to approach old problems with new ideas or new problems with old ideas.

What's something you're passionate about teaching other telecommunicators and dispatchers?

CLARK: Something I've been teaching for years is leading change from the dispatch console. I think telecommunicators and dispatchers are leaders in public safety agencies, but they're often underestimated for their leadership capabilities. The emergency response starts with them, and they set the tone.

When someone calls 911 and needs to give CPR to a relative, the telecommunicator leads them through CPR. When an officer is in an urgent situation, they're the ones leading other officers safely to that location.

Another thing about telecommunicators is that they're more hands-on with the technology than most people at the agency. They're really effective users of these applications. They know it better and can navigate it better. They're who officers, firefighters, and command staff turn to when they're having issues with the technology or not sure where to find something.

Because of their intimate knowledge of the software applications and how they work, oftentimes, they can troubleshoot and problem-solve in ways they can't even articulate. They just know, innately, I can click here or look there, or, one time I did X and it worked.

If I'm trying to troubleshoot, the first thing I do is talk to a dispatcher. Show me where you're clicking, show me what you're doing. It can help a lot in troubleshooting. I think that is another way that they act as leaders.

How can telecommunicators and dispatchers take a more active role in being leaders in their agencies?

CLARK: Dispatchers follow a very consistent and precise process. So, if you can engage the dispatchers in implementing new software, even if they won’t be using it regularly, you're going to have a better implementation.

As an example, I was working with an agency that was implementing Tyler's Enforcement Mobile solution. A dispatcher is never going to touch a handheld device; a dispatcher is never going to issue an electronic citation. They are never going to scan a driver's license using that device. But they can take on the role of on-duty help desk personnel.

When our agency was getting used to using this new solution, the officers didn't always remember all of the intricacies of how to use it. By involving the dispatchers in the training process, they were able to answer officers' questions on the spot. An officer would say, "This won't print," and the dispatcher would respond, "Well, did you do X, Y, and Z?" and help fill in the knowledge gaps.

I think that's a great example of how the dispatcher, even though they're not ever going to use the application themselves, can provide support and guidance to the responders who are using them out in the field.

Telecommunicators are also a consumer of the outcome of that technology. For example, an officer writes the affidavit for a warrant. If the officer uses the technology properly, then the court gets the correct information, and the warrant is issued with accurate details. So, whenever the dispatcher has to pull the warrant, the process is smoother. Everyone wins. It goes back to how the dispatcher plays a really important role in the life cycle of public safety.

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What's a change you hope to see in the public safety industry, especially as it pertains to dispatchers?

CLARK: When you look at the job description of a dispatcher, federally, it's considered an administrative support role. When an agency is thinking about filling dispatch positions, they often value them based upon administrative workload or the support that they provide for officers. They don't realize all of the technical skills that go into being a telecommunicator. It's much more than just answering telephones and entering data into a computer.

Dispatch is really a STEM discipline (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). We are doing data analysis on the fly. We are doing intelligence gathering while we have a barricaded subject. We're doing so many things that require people skills, communication skills, critical-thinking skills, technology skills.

Many states have been successful in getting dispatch positions reclassified from administrative roles to first responders, so I hope to see that continue state by state and, eventually, federally.

What's one of the biggest challenges 911 communication centers face today, and how would you address it?

CLARK: One of the challenges in a modern 911 center is that most people think dispatch workload is directly tied to CAD events. Most command staff will ask questions like, "What's your telephone call volume? What's your CAD incident volume? What's your traffic stop volume? What's your warrant volume?" but they don't think about the volume of requests that come in via email or people who walk into the room and ask for something.

There are agencies I provide service for on a regular basis that would never generate a CAD event. Currently, we have public safety agencies who are subscribers and pay a per-call fee. In other places I've worked, we had people who didn't pay into the system, but they were very taxing on our resources. In that situation, I was trying to figure out, "How can I articulate why I need more staff?" I started thinking through ways to utilize some of the standard functions in our Enterprise CAD system to more accurately calculate workload.

For example, CAD tracks officer status to show when an officer is busy handling a call. So, we created dispatcher statuses for the same purpose. Now I can say, "Our dispatchers ran 150 criminal histories for you last month. They handled 75 after-hours phone calls for you last week."

We found that processing phone calls is really 40% of our workload, whereas it used to appear as 100% of our workload. It has really allowed me to quantify the workload that dispatchers are doing, and it helps me staff appropriately. It also allows me to utilize my staff effectively. I can say, "I need an extra body during these hours of the day, not just for telephone or CAD workload, but for warrant workload." Or, I can split this person's shift so they can give another staff member a break from the phones while also supporting these other workload elements.

Another way I addressed this challenge was by creating "ghost units." The agency I was working at was providing support for units we didn't have in the CAD system. There was no way to track workload tied to those units. So, we created ghost units and tracked their status throughout the call for service. It helped us because we could track our workload, and it helped the agency we served because it allowed them see which units were responding within their time limits, which units were responsive to phone calls — and all kinds of helpful metrics.

We really had to get creative and look at different ways to use the functions that already existed in CAD. And I think that ties back to the importance of a solid CAD system.

Looking for a CAD system that can keep up with a complex, modern agency? Learn more about Tyler Technologies’ Enterprise CAD solution and the full suite of Enterprise Public Safety solutions.