After the events of 9/11/2001, Inger Priegel, 41, felt as if she wanted to work in a job where she could help people. At the time, she worked as an office manager for a company that provided temporary furniture solutions for organizations, and the company assisted the Pentagon following the events of 9/11. For Priegel, this was a turning point in her career motivating her to make a change.

Soon thereafter, she was hired by the Anne Arundel County Police Department, and she currently serves as a police communications operator II. She works the police side as a dispatcher and has been employed in this capacity for 12 years.

Priegel acknowledges the variety of skills needed in her role that include a sense of compassion to help others, the ability to multi-task as well as move at a fast pace and be able to retain a lot of information at one time. “Loving what you do makes a difference,” she says. She points out that there are waves of slow as well as busy times, and she notes the importance being level-headed and not becoming emotionally attached to the content of the calls. She focuses on the fact that she keeps control of the radio. Her job is to help the public and keep the officers safe. In addition, she stresses it is necessary to be up to date on standard operating procedures.

Priegel, who also serves as a trainer, admits it is important to be knowledgeable of the area in which she works. There are four district channels in her jurisdiction. “I train a lot of people from different countries,” she says. She points out if dispatchers are not familiar with the area in which they work, the consequences could be detrimental to officer safety. “Pay attention to detail and know what is going on around you. I enjoy helping my peers and staying up to date on things. I like to do things the right way,” she says. Priegel is currently training a new employee, just after training three people back-to-back. “I’ve trained a few people that didn’t make it,” she says. “They realized the job was not for them and they just couldn’t do it.”

For Priegel, accident calls hit close to home. When she was 3-years-old, her father was killed in a fatal car accident. Thus, she realizes the need to provide help to accident victims quickly.

Priegel maintains friendships with officers. “We’re like a big family. We spend a lot of time with each other,” she says. Her boyfriend of nine years is an officer who has served 20 years in the police department. They work different shifts; she cannot sit still on a shift when he is working. Their roles complement one another, and they both understand the stressors involved in each other’s jobs. They can discuss frustrations and vent their feelings on one another with a degree of mutual respect. “It does make a difference,” Priegel says.

Priegel stresses the need for dispatchers to know the voices and personalities of the officers they work with, and she believes it is important for them to develop and build rapport with the officers. “You want the officers to want you to be on the channel,” she says.

Like most dispatchers, she enjoys the fast-paced calls that present a lot of excitement. However, she recognizes the importance of her role in all calls that she takes and never loses sight of that fact.