7/22/2023 0 Comments Text to 911 joplin globe![]() "Then I went and had a meltdown in the bathroom," she said.Īnother call stands out. She said she took the calls and got through them. Moments later, she got a call where a baby had died. Within an hour, she took a call about a fire, in which the caller said he was trapped. One of her worst days occurred about five years ago. And after you hang up the phone, that's when you deal with the emotions. When you take one, you do what you've been trained to do. "You just have to remove yourself from that during the call and just focus on that call," she said. The worst type of calls for her - or any dispatcher - are those involving children. "But if my husband is in a situation that needs help, the other officers are good about texting me and saying, 'Hey, he's OK.'"Īny phone call she takes can be a life-and-death situation for the person on the other line. If any officer is in trouble, then we're all worried about (him or her)," she said. Whenever we're at work, all of our officers are kind of the same. Luckily, she's never had to take a bad call involving her husband, and she hopes she never will. Gooch's husband is a Joplin police officer, with the department's Special Enforcement Bureau. "I'll be talking on the phone, my husband will be talking to me, (but) I can still hear the kids in the other room say something," she said. It's a useful skill to have, even at home, Gooch said with a grin. "I can be on the phone with somebody screaming at me, but I can still hear my officer asking for a '28,' and then at the same time, I'm still able to catch the conversation going on in the background. You love that you don't know what's ever going to happen. But those of us who get into the field, that like it, that's what we love. There are times where I can get four medical calls back-to-back-to-back-to-back, and then the phones will go silent. "And then you do your best to keep up and update units (in the field). "It is difficult, but you just have to take it one (task) at a time," Gooch said. At any given moment, dispatchers can silently handle up to six or seven different tasks simultaneously. 1 requirement of dispatching is being able to multitask, Gooch said. I'd go home at nights and see codes and alphabets running on (the bedroom) walls." ![]() "I thought, 'What better time to try something new,'" Gooch said. She stumbled into the dispatching job after moving to Missouri from California. She has worked at the cockpit-like console for 10 years. Those calls include a varied mixture of non-emergency, police, 911 and administrative calls.ĭispatcher Julie Gooch fielded 16,000 calls in 2012, the highest total among the center's dispatchers. Third Street, annually fields between 140,000 and 190,000 phone calls. We enjoy helping people, and we enjoy interacting with the public, but it's not a job for everyone." "You can go from high stress to not having anything happening for 45 minutes, and then it's 'boom' again," Goodwin said. It also show the elite multitasking skills a dispatcher must perform to be able to do the job correctly. The clip probably best sums up the importance of a dispatcher. How important? A YouTube audio clip (with 70,000-plus views) covering the initial 35 minutes of the 2011 Joplin tornado features the voice of calm, collected Sherry Nauta as she updates and directs scattered Joplin fire and police units to where they were needed most. It's a career, and a very important one." "It's a very important job," Goodwin said. The dispatchers comprise a unique group of individuals who work odd hours, shoulder huge amounts of stress, can multitask and can simultaneously answer several phone calls - all this while providing lifesaving medical care to the public until first responders can arrive. "They are the ones taking that first call." "They are the ones who connect the dots," Goodwin said. They are the unseen but vital link in keeping police officers - and the public - safe at all times of the day and night. The affectionately named room is the home of 17 emergency dispatchers who strive to calm the chaos of daily disasters who perform one of the more demanding jobs in the area.ĭispatchers based at the Joplin Emergency Communication Center, said Emergency Communications Manager Sunny Goodwin, serve as gateways to the other public safety personnel in Joplin: police officers, firefighters and EMS paramedics. The darkness is punctuated by the blue-white hue of computer monitors - three or four at each desk. It's called "the dungeon." But the dark, windowless room at the Joplin police station holds no prisoners.
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