I'm special (special!) So special!

Occasionally, when people call 911 for something petty, they start to realize I'm not going to help them. (Hello, noise complaints! Have I yet mentioned on this blog that I really hate when people call 911 to report noise, and that it is NOT an emergency?) People can really take this personally! "Why won't you send officers out?" As if I have the power to choose who does and does not get service.

Let me just clear something up here. If I tell you officers will not be responding to your noise complaint or vehicle prowl or the mysterious case of who dumped their lawn clippings in your trash can, it is not because I don't feel like helping you. Yes, I may be sending you daggers through the phone line or wishing stupidity was painful, but I'm not refusing to help you simply because I don't feel like it.

The police departments we answer calls for decide our policies. I swear. They are the ones who decide they lack the manpower to respond to lost property, vehicle prowls and disputes over yard waste. They write a guideline of what they will and will not respond to, and it is my job to know these guidelines, and follow them.

When you handle as many police departments as we do at 911, this can be a daunting task. Some of our smaller forces serve towns of only a few hundred people. These police departments (damn, I'm tired of typing that out. It will be PDs from here on out.) will respond to any and everything. Kind of like Mayberry. Cat in a tree? Check. Pesky garage door opener not working right? Be right there!

Other PDs serve large cities. We're talking gang, drug, and prostitute infested inner cities. The real deal. These officers respond to gang shootings, drug raids and drivebys on a daily basis. Do you think they give a shit if someone broke into your car to get the iPod you left on the front seat? Not likely. Being exposed to real crime makes them a little jaded. Which rolls downhill to 911 operators. They say they won't go to vehicle prowls? Ok then. No amount of bargaining with me will get you your way. Its not because I'm having a bad day or I don't like you. I really just cannot put in the call. If I take pity on you and put in the call for dispatch, my supervisor will just cancel it, and I'll be reminded to re-read that policy for that PD. It makes more work for me, so no matter how nice you are to me or how much you beg, yell, or fuss, it just ain't happening.

So when you scream and curse at me for "not doing my job!" It is because I am actually, in fact, doing my job. And you're yelling at the wrong person. You don't like the policies? Believe it or not, your 911 operator didn't write them. I'm just the warm body in the chair, who gets paid to listen to you rant. Really want to make some changes? Try your police chief's office. 9-5, Monday through Friday. 911 operators have nothing to do with it. Especially those of us on graveyard!