Menu
Dispatchers vital cog in emergency response
For the past 29 years, Kayla Parsons has dealt with pretty much every major crisis and oddball question imaginable.
It comes with the job.
As manager of Elmore County's public safety answering point -- known locally as the area's dispatch office -- her life is focused on emergencies, regardless of how big they get or how small they remain. Each time the phone rings, she never knows if she'll deal with a routine call or a person in peril.
Taking a break from her duties at the department's office next to the county jail, she looked back at the decision in 1980 that got her started. A high school friend recommended she submit an application.
"I had just gotten divorced, I had a little girl and I needed a job," she said.
She started off working with the Mountain Home Police Department at a time when it ran the dispatch center. Thirteen years later, she moved over to the county dispatch center when it assumed control.
Today, the Mountain Home native manages a team of eight full-time dispatchers. Each one pulls four days of 10-hour shifts followed by a three-day break. Her team handles all incoming 911 calls -- every fire, medical emergency and request for law enforcement assistance. This workload tends to take a toll on these people, hence the four-day schedule, Parson said.
"It's such a stressful job, and that extra day off lets you wind down and pull yourself back together," she added.
Training for her dispatchers starts at the state's Post-Academy Peace Officers Standards and Training Academy in Meridian. The two-week course covers just the basics with more intensive hands-on training to follow when they report to their first dispatch center.
In addition to learning the features on the different computer systems they use to identify, track and monitor emergency calls, the dispatch office spends a considerable amount of time teaching its rookies proper phone etiquette with a focus on gathering as much information as possible from those who call 911.
"A dispatcher is only as good as the information that they can draw from someone that calls in," she said.
Since dispatchers may deal with multiple emergencies at the same time, their training also covers how to prioritize calls, focusing attention on the most urgent crisis before moving to the next. A license plate check during a routine traffic stop has a much lower priority than an in-progress call dealing with an unknown emergency, for example.
Over the years, Parsons has trained and supervised many dispatchers. The best ones, she said, are those gifted with the ability of handling several problems at the same time.
"Multitasking is one of the most important traits of a dispatcher," Parsons added. At any given time, they will talk to a person on the phone while listening to the radio and typing information on a computer screen all at the same time.
In addition to having to juggle seemingly everything all at once, dispatchers have the added responsibility of keeping a lot of people safe, from the officers on patrol to the general public, Parson said.
"Dispatchers are all things to all people," she said.
Despite her years of experience, Parsons admits it's tough to know when they'll have slow days or when they'll deal with utter chaos, she said.
"The only consistency that you'll find is it's inconsistent," she said. "You never know. Whether it's a Monday, a Friday or a Wednesday, you can't predict how many calls you'll take. It could be the middle of the night when you get a lot of calls. You just never know what'll happen."
The convenience and availability of cell phones makes it even tougher at times, she said.
"If an accident occurs, until we get an officer or an ambulance on the scene, everybody that sees it calls it in," she said. "On the same accident, we may get 10 to 15 calls. They're all 911 calls, and they all have to be answered."
In comparison, Parsons usually received just one or two calls regarding an accident in her earlier days as a dispatcher.
"It was a lot easier to handle that back then," she said.
While most days feature a regular routine, Parsons knows all too well to never let down her guard since things can change in a heartbeat. The most recent example happened the evening of April 2 when a snowstorm blew through southern Idaho.
"We had cars all over the place," she said, with multiple accidents reported the interstate between Mountain Home and Glenns Ferry. Within a two-hour period, the center had dispatched every ambulance in the county, every on-duty patrolman was handling accidents with the local hospital emergency room overflowing with crash victims.
To handle the crush of phone calls, the dispatch center went from one to three people on duty. During all this chaos, Parsons also dealt with a completely unrelated issue -- a 911 call from an elderly woman with a major sewer line problem.
It's all in a day's work for her team.
Despite the regular emergencies, not everyone that calls the dispatch office has an actual emergency. Sometimes people will call looking for the phone number to city hall, current road conditions or the start time of a local event, Parsons said. Despite these calls, dispatchers will always answer every 911 call because they never know which ones are actual emergencies and which are not.
"We try to help everyone who calls, regardless of why they called," she added.
If her department can't help someone for one reason or another, they make it a point to connect them to someone who can.
Looking back over her career, Parsons has no regrets on her decision to remain in Mountain Home. Although other counties in Idaho may offer better pay, she prefers the quiet life that Elmore County has to offer.
"I'm dedicated to serving the people of this county as I've done for the past 29 years," she said.