iStock/Daniel Stein

By Ian McCann, Dallas Morning News Staff Writer
Dallas, Texas — The only sure thing when a 9-1-1 operator starts work is that the day – or night – is going to be unpredictable.

When Holly Lott got to the Richardson emergency dispatch center March 5, the phones were ringing off the hook. She logged in and picked up a call as quickly as she could.

The call would last 17 minutes. And it tested every bit of cunning Lott had as she tried to get an evasive, suicidal man to reveal details of where he was so dispatchers could send officers to him. And she had to rely on instincts – she was so new to the job that she hadn’t had specialized training for handling suicidal callers.

The man survived, and last week Lott was one of seven colleagues statewide named 2010 Telecommunicator of the Year by the Texas Commission on State Emergency Communications.

The award caught Lott by surprise. Why?

“Because it’s my job. It’s what I do every day,” said Lott, 23. “I don’t think that one call is any more important than any other.”

Communications manager Brenda Moreland said Lott, although still young and the newest member of the team, has good instincts.

“He believed her that she cared,” Moreland said. “You’ve got to have a caring heart, and she does.”

Besides instinct, Moreland said, Lott is also good at the job. Using persistence and gaining clues a little at a time, Lott slowly narrowed down the man’s location. Eventually he said he was at Heights Park, more than a mile away from the coordinates his cell phone transmitted.

“Every moment, I was trying to figure out what I could say,” Lott said.

One other North Texas dispatcher received the commission’s award. On March 7, Carissa Katekaru from North Richland Hills helped a frantic 9-year-old girl whose father had had a seizure while driving and crashed into a guardrail. She calmed the girl down and got her to turn off the car while also figuring out where they were stopped.

Lott said she and fellow dispatchers and calltakers can relate to one another. They understand the high-pressure environment they work in, and they all know that they are the direct link to a frightened caller on the other end of the line. But it’s a job they love.

“I truly believe that you have to want to help people,” Lott said.

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