“Help is a call away” PG Mounties celebrate 9-1-1 dispatchers

Last week was National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, the Prince George RCMP took the time to celebrate one of their 9-1-1 dispatchers.

Brett, a 9-1-1 dispatcher for six years, recently transferred to Prince George from Surrey.

In Prince George, the dispatch centre covers most of the North District, an area spanning from 100 Mile House to the BC/Yukon border, and from the Queen Charlotte Islands to the BC/Alberta border.

“We don’t typically dispatch for the same area each day, we rotate around,” Brett said.

“This is so it’s fair to everyone. Some places are busier than others and this way everyone build up their experience with different types of calls coming in from the public, or different situations that come up, and no one starts to get burnt out.”

Brett says while there’s always something going on in Prince George, there’s not often a residual take-home after the shift is over.

“If our 9-1-1 dispatchers experience a high-risk call, especially if there has been some violence or it was very stressful, we always ensure they go through a critical incident debrief,” said North District Operational Communications Centre Manager Steve Cox.

“We have a fantastic Employee Assistance Program that can help our 9-1-1 police dispatchers manage the stress and emotions of those calls, so they don’t feel like they have to process that all on their own.”

Dispatchers work for two 12-hour day shifts and then two 12-hour night shifts, sitting or standing at a desk with five or six computer monitors facing them.

These monitors show different types of information about the current calls coming in, and the status of officers in the dispatch area they are covering that day.