911 Where is Your Emergency

911 where is your emergency? This is a common phrase I use many times in one shift. From that point a call begins, a call that I am invested in from beginning to end. Some of these calls aren’t true emergency’s, but I would rather someone call and it not be, than for someone to not call at all and it truly be. Some of these calls I will never as long as I live forget. As much as it stuck with my caller, it also stuck with me to a point that on some, I know every detail from name, address, date, time, and exactly what occurred. Now multiply that by many years of doing this job. Does my job sound so easy now? Do I just answer the phone? Do I just tell people where to go? I know how frightening it can be to call 911. I have been on both sides of the phone. In January of 1998 my father had a heart attack and died in front of me. I was 18, he was 45. I called 911, gave what information I could, advised her that I was CPR certified, began CPR, and handed my mother the phone. I did CPR on my dad for almost 15 minutes before response arrived. Those 15 minutes seemed like an eternity, because as I was doing chest compression's, giving breaths, checking for a pulse, my whole life, every memory with my dad was going through my head. How would life go on if he wasn’t there? The two guys who worked my dad’s call stood beside us the whole time at the hospital. One couldn’t have been much older than me. I would love to speak to him today, he stood beside me and I had no clue who he was nor did he know me. See that’s what happens when your heart is in your job. I’ve been blessed to work with MANY like that! When you have to call 911 it’s not typically for a hurt toe, so know that I understand the importance of your call. I have many people who get upset because I have so many questions that I have to ask or I will repeat questions a few times. Please, just know that I have many reasons for this. If you are upset, frantic, etc and you call 911 sometimes you are not exactly thinking clearly. Therefore, I will ask questions over, and over to make sure that the information that I have is correct, because I want to get help to you just as much as you want me to get it to you. There are questions I HAVE to ask, but know that while I am asking these things my partner is getting help to you! We work as a team, or at least we try hard to, unfortunately it doesn’t always pan out that way for us. The information I ask you for may seem irrelevant, but I have many reasons for asking it. See those people that respond to you whether it be Fire/Rescue, EMS, or Law Enforcement, those people are my family! Maybe not my blood family, but not all family is blood. It is MY responsibility to get all the information I can to ensure their safety as well as yours. For example, you call in on 911 because someone is trying to break into your residence. There are specific questions I am going to ask, one being do you have a firearm. I’ve had people get mad at me for asking that question, but if my officer goes on scene and has no idea who you are and you have a firearm, this could mean a life or death situation for both of you. If you have a firearm and I tell you to stay on the phone with me, please don’t hang up, it’s for your safety as well as theirs. But see here is the other thing, come Christmas or some other holiday I don’t want to have to look at that response unit’s family or your family experiencing their first holiday without you or their loved one simply because I didn’t go above and beyond for both of you. Like I said, I know something bad is normally happening when you call 911, but don’t resist giving me any information (unless you really can’t). I am asking in the effort to ensure the best possible outcome for everyone. When I am on a shift my responsibilities lie with the public, my officers, my medics, and my fire/rescue personnel. That’s a lot of people to be responsible for. So if you could please be as understanding as humanly possible at that time. I am used to being cussed and called names, heck I’ve been married haha two times, I can handle it. Cuss me not my people. Get it out while I have you on the phone, but when my people get there please treat them with the utmost respect, they are risking their lives to save yours! I know it’s hard to see Officers, Medics, Fire/Rescue, and Dispatchers as humans, but guess what we feel just like you do, we put our clothes on just like you do, but unfortunately our mistakes, our bad days are thrown out to the media constantly. For every bad apple there are 200 good ones (don’t count on my math, it wasn’t my strongest subject, lol). It’s so heartbreaking to see people dying or being criticized because they wear a badge, they are in a uniform that fights for our freedom, they put the flames out on our burning houses, they pull people out of crumpled up vehicles, they transport you in the fastest time possible when the situation arises, they are the voice on the other end of your tragic situation. We are all human regardless, we hurt, we hurt for you, for your family, for your friends when something bad happens. With that said, before you do something detrimental, think long and hard about OUR family.