Stimulate some discussion here!

As Dispatchers, Telecommunicators, or EMT's - What is it your pet peeve? What is something with this job that really burns you up? I'll get it going - Out of all of the things that our office deals with, we get alarm calls both residential and business. Often we get a residential alarm at P.O. Box XXX, anywhere, NC. So now, we are stunned that there is someone that is asking us to send a LEO to answer an alarm call, and they want us to send them to a PO Box. To the alarm company, we ask, "do you have a physical address?" And they reply, "The only address that we have is P.O. Box xxx" I am very quick to tell the alarm companies that I hardly believe that anyone would pay money to place a motion detection alarm at the Post Office, and they are welcome to call us back when they have a physical location to send an Officer to. The amazing part is the folks with the Alarm Companies actually get P.O.'d with us!!!!!!!!!! Go figure.

I have a lot of them, but one that comes to mind is when we get a warrant and have to kick them loose because the one Co Jail we deal with refuses to take on anything less than a felony - regardless of the charge. I had an officer set up by a couple of yahoos who decided to steal a chainsaw in broad daylight in front of him. They went to a gas station across the street and stood there waiting for him....all the while giving hand and eye signals. There was no backup for over 30 miles, and he was calling for emergent backup. He was able to get one in custody while the other got away. The one in custody continued to scream about how he knew where he lived and he was going to kill the officer and his family. I called the jail to let them know our officer was enroute and they told me to tell him they wouldn't take the guy. I ended up talking to a Sgt. at the jail *****fused - even considering the cir****tances. I told him it wasn't my job to argue with him and I refused to tell my trooper not to continue. I said if they wouldn't take him that was their perogative but we were dropping him off at their door and doing OUR job. This all started from a sheriff in that county who was playing games with the public and they called his bluff and took funding. They were short on personnel, so their response to that was to kick everyone out of jail and to not take anything less than life or death emergency calls. If you had a burglary, you had to stand in line between 1p-4p Monday - Thursday to get a form to fill out and file. No officer response at all. That was probably close to 10 years ago and they still keep that policy on the jail at least. Just one of the many. Dina

Well I think what burns me up is when I go to send a crew(im an ambulance dispatcher) to a private transfer they give me crap about taking the call. They are on 12 hour shifts but think that taking more than 5 calls a shift is harrassment. When I was on a rig the more calls I took the faster the day went. But other than that I love my job as a dispatcher and I loved it when I rode an ambulance, I love EMS!!! And I love WLS!!!!!