There are Some Real Idiots Out There on the Roads

We had our "change over" days this weekend. That's the week/couple days where we switch from the schedule we've been working the last 4 months, to the one we will work for the next 4.

Ordinarily there isn't much change since we don't require that people rotate their shifts. So it goes by senioritiy and except for a couple of small changes near the bottom of the seniority list, there isn't much movement.

This wasn't the case for this bid and change over. Two supervisors were demoted and they came back into the room with all their seniority intact. I KNOW!

Anway, that caused quite a bit of controversy but beside that, one of them is at the top of the seniority list. Once she bid the day shift she wanted, everyone else had to shuffle from the person who had been bidding first all the way down to the 17th person. Needless to say, there was quite a bit of movement this time.

So one of my dispatchers that was moving to days from graveyard shift was rushing into work on Saturday, her first on her new shift. She was running a little bit behind so she was using the speed limit more like a guideline than an actual rule.

Seventy-eight in a 55 is what she said she was doing. Most of her drive is highway and at 5 in the morning on a weekend, there aren't many other cars on the road.

She's making good time, and probably going to be early for her shift instead of late when she glances in the rearview and sees a pair of headlights coming up behind her very fast.

"At that point, I was thinking, 'That guy is an idiot. I'm doing almost 80 mph and he's gonna pass me like I'm standing still. What is this moron's problem?'"

That was when the headlights, which seemed to appear out of nowhere settled in behind her and the state trooper flipped on his overheads to let her know she was being pulled over for speeding.

Glad that she could laugh at the irony. And glad she shared the story with everyone at work!

For the Troops

This is part of a weekly staff notes we're emailing to our dispatchers. The Department has had a tough time of late, and there's more than enough low self esteem to go around. But changes are coming. Some of them have started already.

So the question is how to get people who were hurt by the whole thing, and who are naturally a little cynical and, on top of that, trained to be suspicious and not accept things at face value to buy in to the way up from here.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

To start, we want to clean up our conversations—make them constructive and progressive instead of harping on the negatives of the past. If anyone is observed doing this, they will be counseled by their supervisor and it will be reflected in their evaluations as a failure to meet the standard for promoting a courteous and professional work environment. It’s one thing to blow off a bit of steam after a frustrating call, but to go on about it for minutes or hours is not acceptable.

The supervisors are committed to communicating better and following up with your concerns to get resolution as soon as possible. But those concerns must be raised in a professional manner. Complaining aloud in the room about an issue or event well after it has passed is not a professional way to address a concern.

I want this to be a great place to work. I think we all do. The supervisors do. Vicki does. The Deputy Chiefs and the Chief all do. The people who rely on you when they call 911 need it to be a great comm center.
So tell me, “What is missing?” Of all the factors that would make this a great place to work, which ones are lacking? The compensation is fair, benefits are good. We’ve got comfortable work spaces. We save people every day: sometimes from the bad guys, sometimes from themselves. Every day we answer calls from people who need something only we can do. Be proud of that. Take pride in the fact that some of the phone calls that would scare a regular person right out of their mind are the ones you can’t wait to get. The suicide threats, the domestics, the bitter, angry, confused, terrified, helpless people you’ll call back when they hang up so that you can do what it is you’ve been trained to do—so you can do the thing that only you are able to do.

It’s an amazing job. It’s rewarding. It’s meaningful. It supports our families, and as far as I’m concerned, there are no other people I’d rather be working with.

So what, then, is missing? What do we need to make dispatch a place where people look forward to coming to work? What will it take to get to a place where people are proud to say they are a dispatcher for the Arvada Police? Where our reputation as an employer is so good that people envy us for working here?

You know what I think? I think the thing that really is missing—of all the things that will make Dispatch a great place to work—it’s not the pay. It’s not the temperature or the technology. It’s not the officers being nicer or the citizens being smarter.

It’s the people who work here believing it can be just that. Just believing it.

When the person working with you starts to complain, don’t jump on the bandwagon. We’re not asking you to tell them to stop. The supervisors will do that. Just don’t join them. Let them shout at the wind all they want.

But when something good happens…when you hear your partner, your teammate, do something exceptional, tell them. When you see something good happening in the department whether in the room, in patrol, among the command staff, or where ever: get on that bandwagon. Be good peer pressure for each other. Applaud each other. Encourage and help each other.

Commit with us, now, to do this—and we’re almost there. Let’s just be that agency: The one that doesn’t complain about our command staff when we go to training classes; the agency that talks about the triumphs of our co-workers behind their backs instead of tearing them down. The agency everyone else wishes they could be a part of.

Irony in High Heels

I love the winter weather, but combine that with lots of people trying to make their inebriated way home from New Year's celebrations last night, and you've got a lot of hit and run accidents to clean up in the morning.

Fortunately, the weather was really really cold. And those intrepid souls who thought they could walk home after ditching their disabled cars didn't get away completely scott free.

I took a call early this morning from a home owner who awoke to find a car sized-whole in the fence around her back yard. The car was gone, though, and the graveyard shift didn't have any accidents in that area that they worked last night.

It's sad. I know. It's also one of my pet peeves: people who destroy property and don't take responsibility for their actions. Fortunately, mother nature shares my ideas on responsibility and didn't let this driver get home without leaving her own mark.

About 4 hours after the initial report, a woman called in saying the accident had been her fault. Of course, she also had a 10 min explanation of why she hadn't called the police right at that moment and decided to walk several blocks to a gas station to call for a ride.

Thanks to mother nature, and a female penchant for not wearing sensible shoes in negative windchill, she's got a little frostbite to remind her to never leave the scene of the accident.

A Jealous God

There are, I guess, some souls born too precious. God calls them home-back to His side, for He cannot bear to be parted from them.

Made a tape this morning of a family who called 9-1-1 when they discovered their 7 month old son was called to Heaven while he slept.

Tough day.

Halloween...

It's Halloween 2010.
We got a call from probably the leading news channel in Denver this morning. Someone in the city has sent them a cell phone pic of a house with crime scene tape on it.
So one of their intrepid crime / police beat reporters called us to ask if we were working any kind of major events in the area.
The call taker says, "um no. are you sure it's not just halloween decorations?"
The reporter apologizes and hangs up the phone.
I wish we could have told him there was reports of a warewolf loose in the area.

We've already had half a dozen or more calls asking when Halloween starts, or when can people go trick or treating. They'll just get better. maybe there will be some edits to this post with some good calls from later in the evening.

Weird

Today we got a pair of calls that were noteworthy for their similarities. We recieved both around 11am about 10 minutes apart.

Both were suicide attempts. One was successful and one was not.

The events were completely unrelated, and the streets were about 30 blocks apart, but the house numbers were the same. Just weird.

WHOA!

Two DUI calls at the same time with RP (reporting parties following) capped off with a nice traffic altercation near the more unsavoryof King Soopers in our great city.

What is it about storms that makes people say to themselves..."Hmm. I think I'll get shitfaced and go driving around."?

okay...followed by a 911 call for a woman who was at Pomona High School and was looking for their football stadium

"Give me just a moment ma'am while I consult my Life-and-Death-Emergency High School Events Schedule. Wait a sec...I didn't issued one of those probably cause they don't make them."