Radio Check...

I shocked a dispatcher the other day. I thanked her.

I sent a message over the computer in my car a little while after I finished a pursuit, thanking the dispatcher for being there. When we, on the street, finish something, we generally slap backs and shake hands and all that other testosterone laden horse shit, but how often do we thank our dispatchers? Not often enough.

Dispatchers have to endure as much as we do, or more. While we're out there handling business, the dispatcher often has no idea what in Hell is going on, because with a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other, yelling at someone to get the FUCK on the ground, I often don't have the time, the inclination, or the free hand, to key the radio and tell them what's going on. I am usually, however, the first one to remember to advise "Code 4" when the smoke has cleared and the dust has settled. I know there's a dispatcher at the other end of the radio, with a pucker factor of about nine point five, who's waiting to hear something.

Dispatchers can be a pain in the ass at times, but they have their reasons. I'm sure they think I'm a pain in the ass sometimes too. I know I am. I'm sure for every time I've muttered "God, what a bitch!" under my breath, there's been a dispatcher on the other end muttering "God, what an asshole!" under hers. While we have our differences at times, we still somehow manage to work it out when the shit hits the fan, and I know that most of them would be rolling Code 3 to cover me if they could.

For any incident that traumatizes a police officer, somehow people forget the dispatcher who was working the channel. Just because he or she wasn't there physically, absolutely does not mean they weren't there mentally. I have seen dispatchers medically retired because they were working a channel when an officer was shot. This is serious business.

Not enough thanks goes to our dispatchers, and I cannot say enough on this little blog. They are an integral part of our system of doing business. I hope this makes up some Karma points for all those who forget to say it, but...

Thanks dispatchers, for being there, for listening, and for putting up with my bullshit. Y'all can ride in my patrol car any time.