What is your emergency????

Never one to let an opportunity pass, I applied for a position as a part-time Police Dispatcher, before the ink was dry on my retirement papers and I got the job!

I guess I felt that I should be doing something productive, rather than just spending my time adjusting to NOT working in a prison after 25 years. As a so-called “Type A” personality, if I am not continually stimulating my brain with some meaningful activity and I sit doing “nothing” then I will just fall asleep. That’s not exactly how I want to spend my “Golden Years!”

So, the Chief said that he was thrilled to have someone older, since the younger employees often only stay until they can have enough experience to move on to a larger agency. In my case, I wasn’t there for the money, or the benefits; just simply to stay involved and productive in the law enforcement field. After my on the job training he would send me to the required 9-1-1 Emergency Operator academy, which would be for 3 weeks. Then, I would work a few 12 hour shifts a month, not to exceed 960 hours a year so my retirement benefits would not be affected.

I have no idea why I thought that this little po-dunk Police Department in an area with about 8500 full-time residents, would not have much going on and that it would be a fun…. Yep…FUN….job, without any stress. I figured that there might be an occasional call for service….like a domestic dispute or barking dogs interrupting a good night‘s sleep. Stuff that you‘d think that you would deal with in a mountain community that‘s infringing on nature and beast…“Paul 4.…see the woman at…….regarding possible mountain lion on her property.”

Wrong.

It was way more than that. In my four, 8-hour days of training we dealt with lots of crazy stuff, including three 9-1-1 calls….one medical…someone not breathing, a chimney fire, and the worst…..a missing 2 year old. Her mother left her unattended in their high elevation back yard (prime mountain lion territory), for about 10 minutes…near horse troughs and densely wooded mountain drop-offs. After ensuring the estranged husband didn’t kidnap the child, putting the entire valley on alert and organizing volunteer search team members, she was eventually coaxed out of her hiding place by her mother’s sweet voice on the police officer’s bullhorn, offering her an ice cream cone. Whatever works, I guess.

By my 3rd day of training, I was entering all dispatch information on the computer and running all vehicles and licenses for the traffic stops, all while trying to decipher the officer’s Phonetic Alphabet over the radio. Thank goodness my patient trainer understood what the officer was saying…..and she translated the info while I operated the computer. Every day I went home and attempted to memorize……ADAM, BOY CHARLES, DAVID, EDWARD, FRANK, GEORGE, HENRY, IDA, JOHN, KING, LINCOLN, MARY, NORA,  etc…by reading off each license plate on the car in front of me. The tricky part was trying to write it when hearing the officer recite the plate info over the radio. I wondered if I’d ever get it all together and most of all, I worried that I wouldn’t be fast enough, or accurate and that possibly I would endanger one of our officers with my inexperience. It was especially distressing when one officer would work traffic and make stop after stop, after stop. I finally asked him to give me about 10 to 15 minutes to recuperate between traffic stops! He just laughed! Then, when there were two cops on at a time, both working traffic…..arrrrrggggggghhhh….it about put me over the edge. 

One thing about the experience...I have a greater understanding and appreciation for those who do that work...the street cops and the dispatchers!

Each day, I went home with my shoulders so terribly tense, and my mind racing a mile a minute. I couldn’t relax and I couldn’t sleep. When I managed to sleep, I dreamt of the phonetic alphabet after listening to the police scanner in the evening at home. My stress was mostly self-imposed, because I knew that I was fully capable of doing the job and that I was catching on very quickly. But, I really felt that I’d made a big mistake in taking on a stressful job, without fully having rid myself of the stress associated with my 25 year career. After discussing it with my friends and family, I made the decision to resign, before I got too far into the training and wasted the Chief’s time and money.

After I made the decision to resign, I felt a huge weight had lifted off my shoulders. That in itself made me realize that I’d made the right decision. It’s time to relax and enjoy life for awhile. I’ve got places to go and people to see (Lisa) and a grandbaby to rock in August.

If and when I go back to work….I think I’ll be a florist or something like that!