By Samantha Foster, The Capital-Journal

TOPEKA, Kan. — This past July, the Shawnee County Emergency Communications Center received 20 911 calls from a single phone that were either hang-ups or calls during which young children spoke to the dispatcher.

Although the children didn’t seem upset, the dispatcher had a feeling that something was wrong, so she kept talking to them and gathered clues to find out where they were.

Multiple children, all under the age of 6, had been locked in a 110-degree basement without water.

The dispatcher ultimately was able to get a GPS location during a call, and she used her research knowledge to narrow down the address for officers who were combing the area in Oakland. The officers had been about to clear the scene when the dispatcher was able to give them the address, and they were able to force entry into the house and rescue the children.

For dispatchers and their supervisors, their job comes down to one fact: People’s lives are in their hands. And while averaging more than 1,200 calls a day, there isn’t room for mistakes.

Sheriff’s Capt. Lance Royer, director of the Emergency Communications Center, and Nancy Ganson, assistant director of operations, can tell many other stories of dedicated dispatchers.

In May 2010, a car chase followed by a foot chase took place near S.W. MacVicar and Interstate 70. The suspects were moving toward I-70, and a passing motorist who was gawking hit a trooper and an officer.

“They immediately sprang into action,” Royer said of the dispatchers. “They worked as a well-oiled machine.”

Royer said the communications center can be dead one minute and crazy the next.

“In two seconds, your heart rate’s so high you can’t see straight,” he said.

The excitement is what many of the dispatchers love about their job, Royer said. And they have such a connection with the emergency response personnel they dispatch for that the desire to protect them is every bit as important as protecting citizens.

The call center handled 441,170 calls in 2011 – 109,065 were 911 calls, and the other 332,105 were administrative calls, including those from officers in the field – averaging a hefty 1,200 calls per day.

With that number of incoming calls, it is inevitable that calls get backed up, Royer said, especially for about four hours during the second shift, from 2:30 to 10:30 p.m., which is the busiest time of day. When that happens, calls have to be prioritized.

Royer said he knows it frustrates people who are waiting for someone to respond to their call.

“If your home is burglarized, I know it’s the most important thing in your life,” he said. “But if there’s a domestic disturbance where someone’s been stabbed, cut, shot – that has to come first.”

Royer said response times can be agonizing for dispatchers, too.

A dispatcher received a 911 call from children who were trapped inside a Rossville residence that was on fire, Royer said. He was trying to talk the children through the situation until firefighters could arrive, but at first they weren’t following his instructions.

“It can get frustrating because it feels like it takes forever,” Royer said. In the five minutes it takes for firefighters to respond to a fire like that one, he said, “it can also be an eternity for us.”

Ganson, assistant director of the Emergency Communications Center, said the job is challenging but interesting. Some dispatchers make careers out of it, while others work there while putting themselves through school.

The application process is rigorous. Royer said applicants must qualify with a typing test, have a high school diploma or GED and have no felony convictions. They take a computerized multitasking test, and if they pass, they are interviewed by a three-person panel. They have a full background check, followed by a polygraph test. If hired, they undergo a nine-month probationary period during which they train on all three shifts.

“We lose a few people during that,” Royer said.

The ability to multitask is an important requirement. In the communications center, dispatchers with headsets sit in front of five computer screens. One shows the radio frequencies. Two others show the CAD information for their calls. One shows email and CAD mapping. The fifth shows phone calls.

Eight or nine dispatchers work at a time. The communications center handles calls not only for the Topeka Police Department, the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office and the Topeka Fire Department, but also for fire and police departments in Silver Lake, Rossville, Auburn, Dover, Soldier and Shawnee Heights, as well as Topeka Unified School District 501 school police after hours.

Dispatchers rotate positions in the center, which include two for police calls, two for the sheriff’s office, two for all fire departments, one general 911 call taker, one supervisor and one information frequency position, which encompasses such tasks as running tag numbers for officers in the field.

Royer said the Emergency Communications Center employs 57 people, but 13 of those positions are vacant.

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