"I wish the world knew how much most dispatchers care about our profession. It is so rewarding when we know, without a doubt, that we have helped to save someone's life. We also change lives on a daily basis. This could be by just patiently listening to a lonely elderly person tell us their fears or concerns, keeping a teenager calm after they are involved in their first minor accident, or listening to someone talk about taking their own life while we
urgently try to get help to them. We are cussed out on a regular basis but answer the very next call with a calm voice ready to help the next person. We hear callers scream, cry and beg for help when they have just found their child dead or when they wake up in the middle of the night and their house is engulfed in flames. We stay calm and send all the resources available. We usually never get to hear how a call turns out so we get very little closure. Then there are our officers. We are forever concerned for their safety and see it as a personal challenge that everyone goes home safe at the end of the shift. So while we are never physically at the scene of any of our calls, we are still most definitely the FIRST RESPONDER. Most people would have a hard time believing some of the things we hear. But most of the things we hear, we have a hard time forgetting."