Personal Blog Post #2 Centre County Dispatch

Personal Blog Post #2 Centre County Dispatch

Last week for our final project in this class, my roommate Evan and I took a trip to the Centre County dispatch office located in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania in order to learn how a dispatch office truly works top to bottom. It was a great opportunity for us because it was only a ten minute drive from our apartment and we learned everything that we needed to learn at this orientation to the dispatch center. When we got there we were asked to walk through a metal detector because it was considered a government building. After we finally made our way through the security check, we met a man named Dan who was in charge if the 911 dispatch center here. He was very cool and gave us an in depth tour of the place and told us pretty much everything we needed to know.

It was really interesting and exciting actually going into the dispatch office and seeing what calls come in and how the people working there actually deal with the calls. The way things were set up in here consisted of 5 people altogether running the entire dispatch operation. One of the workers was Dan who managed the operation and makes sure on a daily basis that everything is running smoothly. The other 4 people in the room consisted of both call takers and dispatchers. When the 911 calls come in these are the people that both answer the 911 call and then dispatch whatever emergency service is needed in order to combat the disaster or crime. The 4 people in the dispatch room were split up into firemen, EMS, State College Police, and Patton Township Police. Altogether, these 5 people in the dispatch area are the brains behind what makes the police and all emergency services in the area able to do their jobs better.

After we learned how this all worked we were able to actually sit there and see a call in progress on one of the dispatcher’s monitors. It was very interesting to actually see how this happens because for any of you imagining what actually happens during a 911 call it’s completely different. I always thought they were there on the phone to simply keep you calm in case of emergencies; however it is quite the opposite. I never realized how much work they actually do until I saw them in action. I would have actually thought of taking this job after graduation if it paid more, they said it paid terribly so I think I am going to stretch my wings and look for other types of jobs after graduation. I still don’t really understand why people would want to work at the dispatch if they are so underpaid. Maybe they just enjoy serving the community and making decent money to do this as a college graduate. At the following link you can find out more information about dispatch centers in general and how they work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zR3SIzFJS4