This is a call type we use when we believe someone involved has an aptly-named mental and/or emotional problem. Sometimes it’s the caller, informing us that they have ghosts in their van and they would like the police to come out and do something about it. Other times, it’s the person screaming in the street about spectrums and relays at 0300. Sometimes we use the notation to alert the officer, firefighter, or EMS personnel that someone involved sounds potentially unreliable at best and dangerous at worst.
Sometimes it’s just the rookie dispatcher getting too much into his own way.
I spent the weekend in a teensy bit of a funk. My academy classmate was released on phones just before my weekend. Good for her! She worked hard, is super smart, and totally deserved it. I’m proud and pleased for her.
Also, rampantly jealous.
Our training supervisor even apologized because she knows I’ve had to bounce around schedules far more than usual, I lost my trainer for a month and my fill-in trainers weren’t giving me the same level of feedback, and that I’m “right where I’m supposed to be.”
Like most dispatchers, however, I’m very much a perfectionist. So, I spent time going over my reports, working on things I need to improve this week. I showed up on my Monday and was a whole new me. I only missed five calls out of the dozens I took and those only by a hair. Last night, I missed six, but I felt like I was doing way worse because I was getting more feedback from my trainer.
Today, I’m totally in a funk, even though I know I’m doing SO much better than I was last week. My trainer even said I’d be going to eval in the next couple of weeks. That’s huge. But I still have a bit of the blues and the stress, for the first time, is gnawing at my butt.
To help combat this, I’m acknowledging the stress, reminding myself that I’m way ahead of where I was last week, which was already an improvement, and eating chocolate ice cream.
Because I’m an adult, damn it!
911 Dispatches 
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