Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

When people ask me what I do, I tell them this... I have my dream job. I get paid for sitting on my butt for 8 hours, drinking free coffee, watching cable tv, talk an the phone, and the radio, play on the internet, and the best part is I get to tell the officers where to go and not get in trouble! :D

But we are a small department with only 15 sworn officers, 4 dispatchers, 1 records clerk, and 1 court clerk. We usually only get 5 or 6 calls for service a shift and out of those maybe 3 get reports, so we aren't a busy dept like LA or NYC etc.

When people ask me what I do, I tell them this... I have my dream job. I get paid for sitting on my butt for 8 hours, drinking free coffee, watching cable tv, talk an the phone, and the radio, play on the internet, and the best part is I get to tell the officers where to go and not get in trouble! :D

But we are a small department with only 15 sworn officers, 4 dispatchers, 1 records clerk, and 1 court clerk. We usually only get 5 or 6 calls for service a shift and out of those maybe 3 get reports, so we aren't a busy dept like LA or NYC etc.

Must be nice... I sit for 8 hours, answering the phone, answering the radio. No TV (except for the crappy security cameras,) very limited internet, powdered creamer is nasty, and we have 2 dispatchers and about 30-50 officers (in total, not per shift) not to mention the 3 fire stations we dispatch, or all of public works (water, gas, street, animal control) that we dispatch after hours.
I'm somewhat envious.

Oh, and I almost forgot. More often than not, the officers tell US where to go. Imagine that.

Must be nice... I sit for 8 hours, answering the phone, answering the radio. No TV (except for the crappy security cameras,) very limited internet, powdered creamer is nasty, and we have 2 dispatchers and about 30-50 officers (in total, not per shift) not to mention the 3 fire stations we dispatch, or all of public works (water, gas, street, animal control) that we dispatch after hours.
I'm somewhat envious.

I work 3 days 3-11pm and 2 nights 11p to 7a, and the night is usually filled with business checks, vehicle checks, and then boredom. Our department only serves a population of only 6,000 so not much happens. But when it does happen it happens in a big way. Two bomb threats at the courthouse across the street. I was working dispatch those days and from my position I was less than 70 yards from where the device was supposed to have been. Last I checked, sheetrock does very little to stop shrapnel from going where it wants to. I have no bullet resistant glass between me and the door, it's just 1/4 inch plexiglass.

We too dispatch public works, ACO, 4 fire depts, 2 police depts, as well as some county units on occasion. We don't house inmates, but we are a 12hour holding facility, and when we have someone in a cell it falls on the dispatcher to make jail checks every 60 minutes even though we have them on camera. We also do court ordered child exchange, community sentencing UA's, DHS UA's, and other court ordered UA's.

My kids thought all I did was sit around and talk on the radio once in a while, til I had them come sit in the second chair on a Friday and Saturday night, our 2 busiest nights with public intox, DUI, DWI, noise complaints, barking dogs, and all the other BS we deal with on a regular basis. "My Dream Job" was originally put up as a joke and I figured those of us in the business would know better.

But to the public they think that's all a dispatcher does. :rolleyes:

Supervisor?

Supervisor?

No I've only been there 2 years this Wednesday.