I am a dispatcher for Hennepin County..  which is the largest county (population wise) in Minnesota.. I LOVE this job...  the only other job in this world that I would ever want is to be a police officer... which is why I'm here..    becoming a cop is so important to me..  Anybody out there hear me? :) 

I'm a dispatcher!!! I just found it too.

If the masses behave themselves we will be out of a job.. lol.. Glad to see people on this board too. I have dispatched in California for four cities in the South Bay for almost ten years. I have been off for disability I was in a bad car accident broke my femur in two places. I return to work the yard on November first. Yeah! I am also worried about working all night. I am going to have to prepare prepare prepare. I work a 3/12. Good luck to all.

Well, I've done some things over the past year to reduce the amount of stress in my life. I know that working in this kind of job makes that very difficult...but I did what I could. First off was getting through the surgery. I had my surgery last June 14 and have had great success. I've lost a total of 181 pounds so far Another thing that I did was to step down as a Comm. Supervisor and go back to being a line level dispatcher. I finally realized that maybe being a supervisor wasn't for me. I think it was the right move for my dept. and I know it was the right move for me. I disabled my password on my work email so that I can not check it at home It's amazing how many times I would check my work email at home...not any more I took a vacation and went up to Punxsutawney, PA for Groundhogs Day. That's the first real vacation I've taken for a while, and I spent the whole week NOT thinking about work and getting some much needed rest

We had a similar idiot here a few years ago. I dispatch for Dublin Police Dept, which is a suburb of Columbus. A Columbus Police Officer was struck by a car and killed while helping out at an accident scene. His funeral was in our city. Anyway....as you're aware, a police officer's funeral is very long and we had some streets closed down. This guy called me complaining because he couldn't get to Bob Evans for his lunch break. I very nicely explained to him that there was a police officers funeral procession that was several miles long causing the traffic delay and suggested that he go to one of the other two Bob Evans in Dublin, or to a different restaurant, of which we have many. He continued to complain, saying "it's frustrating for us who are still around" .... I couldn't believe he actually said that, so I responded that "it's frustrating for us when police officers are killed in the line of duty trying to help people".... he didn't say much more. I wasn't quite as blunt about it as you were Alexa, but I feel your pain.

Hi all! Thanks for the input! I actually got my date the other day....April 10th! I could have had it done sooner but I wanted to save up an extra week off so I don't push things going back to 2 jobs at once. Besides...an extra week off from the asylum is never bad! All of the testing went pretty well except for a few minor things with the blood work...turns out I have Vitamin A, D, iron and protein deficiencies. Looks like the protein thing's gonna be more of a challenge than I thought huh?!?! Hope everyone's doing well & the masses are behaving themselves at work!

call your local police dept or sheriffs dept or surounding agencys and see if they are hiring... i did all my training at work.. kinda like on the job... we work 8 hour shifts... 7a-3p... 3p-11p ( mine) and 11p-7a... usually they put new people on midnights or afternoon... i love my shift... we have a little bit of everything... most of the huge crisis since by 3 most the kids are out of school and people are just getting home and all that good stuff... good luck! lex

Thanks for the responses I'm looking forward to when my energy levels kick back in. Right now all I seem to want to do is sleep. lolol I dispatch for 2 different towns, full time for one & part time for the other so I wind up working back to back doubles on the weekend with a 20hr day thrown in once in awhile. Managing meals should make things interesting....

Hey Chari I am in the pre op phase too. And...on the midnight shift. I feel like eating right after surgery is going to be a real challenge because I don't have a regular sleep pattern, and even now i forget to eat....imagine that at 300+ pounds. One would think I never missed a meal! LOL Let me know how your journey goes, and if I find out any helpful information I will send it your way Be Blessed Joy

you know what... this bothers me.... we had a huge bus fire... people were going across "the ally" aka allagater ally.... basiacally its a 4 lane high way that goes across the everglades... so anyway... there was a cross over... a truck went and crashed into a bus FULL of people that were going back to naples from miami... the bus became fully on fire and the fire went to the truck... liie 6 people died... anyway... this guy called and said... " just so you know.. when you shut down the highway my dinner got cold" i said..." im sorry to hear that... would you like to talk to the 7 yoa who watched her mom die or the lady that burned to death in the bus because she couldnt get out.... or tell her husband that his wife wont be coming him.... and ill be on my way to put your f*cking dinner in the microwave... " he said "'uh" i said "get off my phone and i have nothing to say to you".. people have no idea the things they do or say... help them... i have learned to pray every day... and make fun of at least 60 people in 8 hours