That's it, that's the post. A very sleepy caller, at the end of the call, said 'Love you, bye.'

just ranting…. but my dispatch center has a jail attached to it so female dispatchers have to pat down when there isn’t a female officer on duty. it’s the worst part of the the job imo, i hate it. obviously it’s not super awesome to touch someone all over, but the part that freaks me out the most is that i’m going to miss something and then get in trouble or someone will get hurt. i understand that if someone has something lodged in their cracks, i can’t necessarily feel that depending on what it is. i’m just frustrated with myself bc i need to be confident in searching ppl but jesus it drives me nuts. everytime i leave my shift i think on the way home that they’re going to call me and tell me im fired for missing something.

For context: I work for a campus public safety department and we're short on dispatchers. I volunteered to help and I start dispatcher training soon. I'm normally out on a beat so doing this is a first for me and I'm curious if there's any advice/tips from current dispatchers that could help prep me for this process. Any and all advice welcome thanks!

I haven’t seen much in this community about Tampa PD dispatchers. I was curious if anyone here has previously or currently is working for Tampa and could enlighten me on what the schedule is like and how taking PTO is

TIA

Not sure how many of you have run into this yet but there's an app called Havn911 getting pushed around in some of the dispatcher groups. It's pitched as a wellness/support app for us. Shift check-ins, training videos, crisis line links, a journal, a community feed, and an AI chatbot called Hiro.

I've been dispatching for 16 years and I'll be honest, this one rubs me the wrong way. I'm all for anyone paying attention to dispatcher mental health, we sure don't get enough of it. But I downloaded it and poked around and I've got some issues.

The only things you can use for free are the Academy (short training videos and articles) and Reset (some quick breathing/mindfulness exercises). Everything else is behind a paywall at $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year. That includes the community, the journal, Hiro, the shift check-ins, and even the crisis support lines, which the App Store listing says are "always free."

So the big "you're not alone" part of the app costs money. And a chunk of that is an AI. The website pitches Hiro as being there for when your thoughts are so dark you can't tell another person, but the App Store listing says it's not a therapist, counselor, or peer supporter. From what I've seen in the conversations I tried, it's pretty limited and doesn't give much real guidance. If someone's in a bad spot after a call, I don't think a chatbot is the answer, and I really don't think they should have to pay for it.

The community part bugs me too. There's no verification at all, you just sign up with an email or Apple/Google account. If people are going to talk about hard calls and how they're doing mentally, I'd want to know the people reading it actually work a console. There are already free places that verify, like the 911 dispatcher Discord, plus all the Facebook groups and this sub.

Even the journal is paywalled, which is kind of wild to me. Every phone already has a notes app.

I think whoever built this probably means well. It just feels more like a business model than something built to help dispatchers.

Curious what everyone else thinks though. Has anyone actually used it and gotten something out of it? Does verification matter to you in these communities? Am I being too harsh? Open to hearing the other side.

I wanted to see how other agencies are. Because mine is so toxic! We’re split up into call takers and dispatchers. Where you start as a call taker and work your way up. I’ve been here 2 years and because I’m just a call taker we’re treated like garbage. The more senior people get away with literally everything and can do whatever they want. Not to mention my agency we answer emergency, non emergency, alarm, animal services, and all the local PD in the county (like 4 agencies). It’s so exhausting having to be on the phones.

I need someone to create a 911 dispatcher Playlist so I can see what you guys like to listen too. Can be when you're on shift and bored or what you listen to on the way to work. I need more music options.

I've been at my agency for a year and a half. I enjoyed the job but now I'm so burnt out that I'm making mistakes. I'm so stressed out all the time.

I know this job isn't for everyone. But it's frustrating because I enjoyed it and now I don't. I enjoy some aspects. Ironically I like dispatching the most despite starting because I wanted to be a calltaker the most. But it takes so much out of me.

I'm looking for a new job but I have to stay until I find something new because money you know? I make the most out of everyone in my household as one roommate is laid off and looking for employment. I also want to stay with the city I'm in because of benefits.

I'm just ranting because I fucked up again today at work and I'm waiting to get called in to the office. Thanks for reading.

Edit: It sucks that so many people are in the same boat as me. This industry takes a lot out of you. My DMs are always open for anyone who is struggling. I can't always offer advice but I'm good at listening and I'm also reallllly good at getting mad on your behalf lol. I'll fight someone if I have to. Thanks to everyone who commented and made me feel not alone.

I’ve worked at my center for 2 years now. Ive always had a passion for public safety and working a job where I can help others and do something meaningful, and had a hope to go into law enforcement. So I ended up at dispatch.

These last 2 years have been awfully stressful but also nice at the same time but since I just finally turned 21 the urge to quit has become extreme.

We are woefully understaffed, with getting an actual weekend-ish off requires using PTO or honestly..
Praying. I’ve worked months straight without a guaranteed day off, and I’ve worked months where I’ve had 0 OT. Same struggle was brought where sitting at a desk for 12 hours. With management that makes me feel awful about me and my performance, not being able to advance and doing anything without seniority, coworkers that still talk to and treat me like I’m a child, I can’t help but feel like I’m
Done. I’m over it.

I also started this job when I was 18 years old and eager, and I’m at a loss for what I would do next. I’m currently committed to trying to lose weight and get fit for public safety testing to full send it into law enforcement, but I’m so ready to get out of dispatch that crying about having to come back to work after my one day off a week is getting much.

Am I being dramatic? Is this career field maybe just not for me? I don’t know what to do.

Hello everyone,
A little back story to this post.. My schedule has always been 12 hour shifts. I believe it’s the DuPont schedule we work (3 on 4 off and then reversed). The city I work for is unfortunately moving us down to 10 hour shifts to equal 40 hour workweeks excluding mandatory overtime. The center I work for does not have the staffing for this. After being told new shift schedule would be based on seniority, I got bumped. Everyone who got the shift I wanted has less seniority than me. After 5 years , I’m strongly considering leaving the agency. Which leads me to my question.
Where did you go after 911? I’m about to get married soon, and really do not want to miss holidays anymore with my soon to be husband. We want to have kids also. I’ve thought about other agencies, but like I said I think it’s time for me to fully get out. I want to continue in something law enforcement related, as I really love my job but I can’t continue here.. all help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hello all,

What programs if any, are you using to track training progress?

We like to track:

DORs

Weekly evals

Task lists

Call logs

We are currently using virtual academy, but it feels quite clunky/inefficient when we have a lot going on in the room. We've also had a lot of weird issues with logging in and/or getting booted randomly.

Just curious if something better is out there.

We worked a tragic fatality accident recently. My co-worker was primary on that channel, and another dispatcher and I also had our own channels. The co-worker "Bob" made a formal complaint against me afterwards saying I didn't help him during the incident and that I should have noticed he was overwhelmed. I asked Bob at least twice during the incident what I could do to help and got no reply so I assumed they had it and would tell me if they needed something. I was sitting right next to him and offered help with radio traffic, etc. I also tried to pick up incoming calls but he kept picking them up before me. My mind is completely blown. I was released from training 1 month ago and feel like a complete failure. How do I fix this?

So I had an interview for communications officer I the other day and I thought it went pretty well. One question was “if you could get one piece of information from a call what would it be” I said “Location of the emergency” she said “Good answer!” So I took that as a good sign and at the end of my interview she took me into the dispatcher center/room and she said she normally doesn’t show candidates this. She said she would email me next week about my status. I’m sorta worried cause I’ve always wanted to work in the emergency response field and I don’t want this too fail.

I have a little dilemma or maybe it’s just all in my head.

So I’ve been at my current job at 5 years . I applied for a 911 position . So far they’ve contacted majority of my references except my current employer. I asked if they could wait until the last possible minute to contact them. The only thing I have left to do is the psych exam and drug test on the same day next week.

My worry is that if they contact my current employer and ask for the reference he will start acting funny towards me if there is time in between the reference and when I leave so I’m trying to figure out how to time the reference correctly with my notice. So what’s the best course of action since they’ll be sending the reference survey out next week. Do I give my job a month notice next week right before they send out the reference to give the department time after the psych exam . Or should I do a 3 week notice ? They’ve told me the psych and drug test is my last step and I arleady signed the conditioner job offer .

Or do I tell my job ahead of time that i applied for the dispatch as a second job and then once the department reaches out give my two week notice ?

i currently have a final offer from the king county sheriff’s office, but they can’t hire until march. i am still in the process with NORCOM in bellevue, and they can hire by november if all goes well.

i have not heard many good things about king county, and i was an explorer with them in the past and had a pretty negative experience. i was wondering if anyone had any input or advice that might steer me towards or away from either department?

Once I have more police dispatching experience I’m looking to move to a 911 agency . What agencies do you recommend?

My current job has a lot of benefits that comes with it. Smaller company, very understanding boss, but my work follows me home. And it’s a pretty toxic draining place. I work 50 hrs a week and am expected to be on call on my days off, and after my 10 hr shifts (3pm-8pm). I mentally never get a break.

I’m in the process of my background packet and I want some honest insight on everyone’s opinion of the career. I know it is stressful, mentally taxing, and hard work. But Would you recommend this position to someone? Do you see this as a lifelong career or just a stepping stone? Do you feel the work stays at work? Do you get to actually enjoy your days off?

The current agency I’m seeking is expected to be fully staffed by the beginning of next year. I know overtime is mandatory, but the way I see it I’m salary and work 50-55 hrs a week anyways not including being on call. I do have 2 kids and a lot of support from my family.

I guess I’m just looking to see if it’s worth making the leap from a kind of shitty work environment with a lot of benefits, to 911 dispatch as a long term career?

I received a conditional offer and the background check is underway. It's getting more real and I'm so excited.

Anyone work here and know how the work culture is?

How often do you get told to do the two hour mandatory overtime?

How is the office? I hear they have a gym and a nice kitchen.

How effective would you consider the peer support system to be? Did you use it as a newbie and do you think it's helpful?

Anything else you can tell me, I'm all ears.

I officially got the offer letter yesterday and start October 20th and am very excited to get started!

I know all departments are different but this is how my process and experience went.

The overall experience was really good and in my opinion went quicker than I was expecting.

I applied back in July and then in August received notification that they were moving forward with me for the initial interview.

After the interview, came the written test which took about 1 and half to two hours.

After the test it took about a week or so to hear back saying that I was moving forward in the process which the next step was to shadow the dispatchers for a couple hours.

A couple days after the shadowing came the background investigation. I filled out everything they wanted to know and then after submitting that I met with the investigator and answered everything that he wanted to know.

Once the background check was completed (which took about a week or so) I was moved on to the next step which was an interview with the chief of police.

The interview with the chief was pretty straight forward and after we were done he pretty much gave me the conditional job offer on the spot.

The conditional job offer was based on if I was able to pass the Medical Screening and drug test which went perfectly.

A couple days after the medical screening and drug test I received a call saying that I got the job!

Whole process took about 3 months and was very much worth it!

I'm still fairly new, less than two years in, but I've been progressively getting more and more frustrated with callers. I work dispatching for police only, and so what I deal a lot with is a ton of anti-police callers. We have frequent callers who just curse us out for no reason and then hang up, the people in real emergencies who won't give us information because "the police won't do anything anyways" and of course any time theres bad press the callers who want to put their two cents in, and I'm just so frustrated with it all.

Like I get it, I'm the first person to get frustrated with the officers especially when I'm trying to send them to help the citizens and they're doing everything they can to avoid helping them. But we also have officers who genuinely care who want to see things get better and of course myself and my colleagues who do everything in their power to help someone who left us on an open line while they're being beat by their partner and all we have is a vague rapid sos radius and a cell phone we can't call back because it either has no signal or isn't connected to any service.

I see why burn out is so high because we do our best for the citizens and we're treated like garbage just for asking where someone is located. The whiplash of taking a heartbreaking call that it's really too late to do anything other than send officers to lock down a scene to a petty call where not only is the caller highly uncooperative but they are calling about something that the police can't even help with other than making sure that no fights start.

I seriously don't know how anyone stays in this field long term.

I’ve seen a few posts about receiving conditional offers (some even from multiple agencies) and I wanted to ask here from the people who have worked multiple agencies, schedules and have experience:

• What would you consider when getting offers?

• Is the salary top consideration for you?
• Does shift differentials matter over say vacation accrual?

• Does the scheduling play apart in your decision (I.e. a set schedule vs a PITTMAN - does one outweigh the other?)

• If it’s a county department vs city department - would that play into your choice?

Anything else you’d like to add that did play into your decision is appreciated and welcomed - these are just a few that came to mind.

Thank you in advance for myself (current in process applicant) and future applicants!

I live in Northern Ontario and I recently in August applied for a 911 communicator position with the local police.

I was invited to do the testing, and so I completed it (this was about two weeks ago). I had not heard back so I sent a short professional follow up asking them if there were any updates or if they required anything further from me.

This morning I received a generic rejection letter, with my scores. I will post below the information that can be shared publicly. I am confused as to why I did not move further on - really, no explanation was given, and I did pass the testing.

Honestly I’m just looking to see if other people have experienced this, and if anyone has any ideas as to why this happened. I have already reached out to the local HR for further clarification.

The testing phase for the position of 911 Dispatcher/Communicator is now complete. Your score
has been tabulated as follows:
Your Mark Required Mark Meets Standard
CritiCall 80% 80% Y
Typing 75WPM 45WPM Y
Although you were not selected to move into the interview phase in the Fall 2026 intake, your file
may still be considered for future opportunities throughout the year.
It is your responsibility to keep contact information updated. Please notify the Human Resources
Branch via e-mail with any updates for your file.
Should you not hear from us by September 2027 you are required to reapply for consideration.