Erland details what it takes

Newcastle Police Department
Weston County has recently lost a great asset to its public safety system. Long-time dispatcher, Kami Erland of Upton, retired after over 20 years in the Newcastle Police Department’s Dispatch Center. The Dispatch Center dispatches the Newcastle and Upton Police Departments, Weston County Sheriff’s Office, Weston County Fire District, Upton Volunteer Fire Department, Newcastle Volunteer Fire Department, Osage Ambulance and Newcastle Ambulance Services.
Erland dispatched part time for over a year and a half before becoming full time in July of 2000. 
She said at first she just wanted a job that paid more and had benefits, but that quickly changed.
“I really enjoyed the job and the people I worked with,” she explained, so she kept driving the 60 miles a day round-trip on workdays. “I think that is what I will miss about dispatching, the people I worked with over the years and probably the feeling that I am helping out those persons in the county that need it.”
She said no one could describe being a dispatcher as a completely happy career, and some days are pretty bad.
Erland said that the worst type of calls for her were when a small child was involved.
“I had one where a young boy was trapped in the back seat of a pickup behind his deceased mother and having to listen to him scream, ‘Get me out,’ was heart wrenching,” she said.
There are wins, though, in the dispatch business, she noted.
“My best, most satisfying call was an [emergency medical dispatch] call where a man had been using someone else’s pain patches and it caused him to go in to respiratory arrest,” she said. “The family called 911 and I was able to tell them how to do rescue breathing until the ambulance got there and took over.  I was able to help save this man’s life.”
Sometimes, she noted, there is frustration because people expect dispatch to have all the answers, but the dispatchers try to not let it get to them and try to have a sense of humor about certain situations.
“I don’t know if you would call them funny but the calls that come in asking us things like, ‘When will the snow stop?’  ‘How long will the roads be closed?’ are funny to me because I wouldn’t have an answer to give them. After the umpteenth time a call like this would come in I would feel like telling them my crystal ball is broken so I can’t see that far ahead in time.”
In reality Erland said the dispatchers would direct the caller to the appropriate agency like the National Weather Service or Department of Transportation.
Erland said she would definitely recommend a career in dispatching to the right person.
“Dispatching is not for everyone,” she stressed. “A good dispatcher has to be caring, empathetic, a good multi-tasker, able to keep calm in a crisis, has a good work ethic, works well with others, has a thick skin and genuinely wants to help others.” 
Erland noted that although it is not necessary to have lived for a long time in a community or stay for a long time in a community for which you are dispatching, the benefits of having experienced personnel in the dispatch center are huge.
“Experienced dispatchers know what needs to be done because they have ‘been there, done that, got the T-shirt and hat’ in many instances,” she explained.  “If a situation comes up that is referred to as high risk, low frequency an experienced dispatcher will know where to go to find the steps that need to be taken.  It takes a long time to get good at dispatching, it is not something that just anyone can pick up on or do.”