Working at Modesto's regional 911 center is not for the timid

Graphic nature and frequency of calls make for high stress job

By EMILIE RAGUSO
eraguso@modbee.com

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"911, what's your emergency?"

"I need a f****** 911. I need somebody over here."

"What's your emergency? What happened?" asked the 911 call taker, Joy Myers.

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"This guy is over here being stupid and punching everybody. ... He's in the house," the woman sobbed. "He's hitting my cousin."

The woman gave her location and contact information to Myers, then hung up. About 20 minutes later, the woman called back, her voice more anguished.

"Can we get somebody out here, please? Can we get this lunatic out of here?"

"Is anybody injured?" Myers said.

"No."

The woman sobbed through several more questions. Myers reassured her, then got off the phone and forwarded the information to a dispatcher. Throughout the exchange, and hundreds of others in the shift, Myers, 27, stayed calm. That's what she's trained to do.

Myers was one of about 10 call takers and dispatchers at the Stanislaus Regional 911 Dispatch Center in Modesto on a recent Friday night. The center handles emergency calls for the Modesto Police Department, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department and many area fire agencies.

The center gets 38,000 to 52,000 calls each month, a supervisor said. In July, 55,344 calls came in. That's an average of 1,785 calls a day, 74 an hour.

Police departments in Ceres, Oakdale and Turlock also house dispatch centers.

From 1 to 2 a.m., Myers and another call taker seemed to answer the phone at least once a minute. A woman called, upset that a neighbor had jumped into her yard and taken off with her rooster. A man spoke anxiously as he tailed a drunken driver, his engine revving as he tried to keep pace with the lawbreaker.

Then there was the man reportedly choking his mother in a pool hall parking lot. A gang fight outside a bar. A party at an apartment complex where the guests were "not necessarily fighting, but ... going outside and peeing. They're just being really loud," the caller said.

Myers asks questions that will help her paint a picture for responding officers.

"I have to be his eyes," she said. "If you were the one going to the call, what would you want to know? If there's weapons, I always ask that. Has he been drinking, doing drugs? Is anyone injured? Is it physical, are there children witnessing this? Anything that would make a difference. You just want officers to know what they're walking into."

Extensive training required

Those who answer the center's phones are the first point of contact for people needing emergency services, said supervisor Russ Overstreet, 52. It's a big responsibility, with extensive training to make sure staff is prepared.

Dispatcher Erika Graff, 24, said it took a year to get hired. After background checks and psychological tests, new hires shadow experienced call takers and dispatchers for four to six months before handling calls on their own.

Graff handles radio traffic for Modesto police and sheriff's deputies. Her fingers fly across the keyboard as she scans monitors, checking whether someone is a registered sex offender, has a criminal record or whether a car has been reported stolen. Dispatchers receive readouts on their screens from the call takers about each incident. Then they decide which officers to send where.

"It's very strategic. You're moving people around in the areas they need to be or taking them away from the areas they don't," she said. "It's like a big game of chess."

Dispatchers and call takers work 12-hour shifts. They can't leave their consoles, even to go to the bathroom, without getting someone to cover, Graff said.