PUNTA GORDA, Fla.–A call to 911 has become synonymous with help, hope, and even terror—as witnessed by the nation on Sept. 11, 2001, America’s darkest day in modern history.
A 911 operator is the most important person “that you will never meet,” retired 911 supervisor Sheryle Langmaid told the Epoch Times on April 5. “We are the first, first-responders.”
Langmaid said that 911 dispatchers do not get the same respect as “other heroes,” in that they are the silent partners of law enforcement, fire department, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS).
Dispatchers are sometimes not regarded as “equals” on the first responder playing field, Langmaid said, adding that law enforcement, as well as Fire and EMS often “look down” on dispatchers.
“Are you kidding me?” she exclaimed. “I am the person who makes sure that you get what you need when you call ... and you look down on us? That’s craziness, and you as a dispatcher have to be okay with that.”
Jim Brown, a West Virginia veteran 911 dispatcher, and founder and administrator of the Dispatchers of First Responders Facebook group, said the public would be “surprised” at the number of first responders who “snub their nose” at dispatchers.
“I’ve heard where some officers say, ‘Yeah, they’re here to answer the phone,’ they think they’re the only heroes,” Brown told The Epoch Times. “Dispatchers are needed just as bad as anybody else.”
Advocating for 911 dispatchers, Brown said he believes in heroes but also believes that the word “hero” has a broad definition.
“My definition of a hero is that it is someone that reaches out to help the public, and saves lives, and that can talk someone through that over the telephone,” he said. “I have never heard anyone say ’thank you' to a dispatcher.”
Brown expressed hope this will change when dispatchers are reclassified. “It has been many years coming.”
Most Americans are under the impression that 911 dispatchers are first responders; in some states, like Florida, dispatchers feel undervalued and sometimes misunderstood by the public and others in the law enforcement community, said Brown. But moreover, they do not have the same classification as other first responders, with only nine states currently recognizing 911 dispatchers as first responders.
That designation has remained the same since 1968, even as technology and services have changed, explained Jody Kenyon, president of the 911 Coordinators’ Association.
Since 2018, there have been bills presented to Congress to change the classification of 911 operators. The bill, 911 SAVES Act, was co-authored by Rep. Norma J. Torres, (D-Calif.) a former LAPD dispatcher, and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a former FBI agent. The 911 SAVES Act is bipartisan legislation that sought to reclassify 911 dispatchers from “Office and Administrative Support Occupations” to “Protective Service Occupations” in the SOC catalog.
The reclassification would cost nothing and would more accurately reflect the nature of America’s 100,000 public safety telecommunicators’ work, said Kenyon. But nothing “has stuck, even on a state level.”
“We weren’t asking to be reclassified [as] another special risk, which completely changes their retirement levels,” he continued. “So, we understood the fiscal impacts and tried to go another direction as a place to start—to get our foot in the door.”
In August 2021, Florida attempted to change the classification of 911 dispatchers with legislation that read: “First Responder’s Employment-related Accidents and Injuries; Revises definition of “first responder” to include 911 public safety telecommunicators for purposes of eligibility for workers’ compensation benefits for first responders; requires employing agency to provide educational training annually; requires such training be provided by certain mental health practitioners.”
The legislation never made it out of the banking and insurance committee, and died in March 2022.
Florida Representative Robin Bartleman, a Democrat, sponsored the bill that died in the Banking and Insurance Committee on March 14, 2022.
“I can’t explain how they (legislators) make their decisions,” Kenyon told The Epoch Times. “We’re not going to give up and hopefully we will be more successful in the next session.”
After serving as a 911 supervisor for 12 of her 15 years of service in the state of New Hampshire, Langmaid and her husband, a police officer, retired to the Sunshine State to live out “their golden years.” That dream was cut short two years ago, when she found herself on the other end of the 911 system after seeing her husband slumped over on the living room couch in their Punta Gorda home.
“I was a regular person at that point. I was on the other side of 911,” she said. “I remember telling the dispatcher that I understood what was going on and ‘you’re wasting my time—stop asking me all these questions—I know how this works.’ But this was different—it was my husband.”
Unfortunately, all of the efforts of the dispatcher, EMS and Langmaid herself, could not save her husband.
“That’s when I began to second-guess myself,” she said, with tears welling in her eyes. “Did I pound his chest hard enough for long enough—because he didn’t make it.”
Two years later, Langmaid said she can only “feel” for the 911 dispatcher that took her call because now they have no closure as to the outcome. Once EMS is on the scene, the call is disconnected. “That’s a major cause of stress in that job,” she said.
While Langmaid said she supports 911 dispatchers achieving first responder status, she also feels that if someone “suffers” from PTSD solely because of lack of closure, then “you’re in the wrong line of work.”
“If you have those kinds of emotional issues, you aren’t going to be doing the best job that you can,” she said. “We, as 911 operators, would talk about things amongst ourselves, but it you have those kinds of issues and problems that are so deep that they affect you so greatly, you should not be doing it because you’re putting somebody else in jeopardy.”
In her estimation, less than three percent of the population is capable of doing the job.
“The stress level goes from zero to 100 in less than a second, she said. “You could be sitting there ... and nothing happens, then all of a sudden that phone rings and all hell break loose. You don’t have time to think about it—you just have to react.”
“I sat and listened to every 911 call on February 14, 2018,” Bartleman said. “I was in absolute tears. I could not imagine being the person on the other end now, responsible for dealing with someone calling and saying they’re shooting at my school... That was it for me—it was heartbreaking.”
She said that, after hearing the tapes, she put herself in the shoes of a 911 operator and could not “imagine what these operators are dealing with every single day.”
“They never really get that closure after a tragic event,” she said.
Bartleman pointed to a study conducted by the University of Central Florida (UCF) which found that 911 operators experience the same levels of stress during emergency calls that officers or firefighters do in active situations.
“UCF studies showed that 911 dispatchers who, depending on the call—a mass shooting or a drowning, where their stress levels hit the same spikes as law enforcement and firefighters,” she said. “So it’s naïve to think that this group does not suffer some sort of PTSD stress.”
“Exposure to multiple traumatic events increases the risk of developing PTSD and with that an increased risk of cardiac disease, general psychopathology, alcoholism, and occupational burnout,” the study found.
National Public Safety Telecommunications Week
April 10–16 is National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, which recognizes the work of telecommunicators “helping to save lives every day,” according to their website.
Vonda Jones, the president of the Florida chapter of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) said it is important to recognize the work and sacrifices of 911 dispatchers that are sometimes “overlooked.” The week-long recognition is great, but not enough—911 dispatchers need to be classified as first responders, she said.
“We take pride in being that calming voice during an emergency,” Jones told The Epoch Times. “But we’re still first responders in being [that] we take the call, and we initiate getting the officers to a scene to provide help to citizens who are in need.”
She said she believes that officials on all levels are concerned there might be an influx of workman’s comp claims for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
“I can understand that, because when you introduce something or something comes into law, there’s always a cause and effect,” Jones said. “So I can understand from the financial side and that there’s a cost involved. They have to figure out how this is going to impact the economy and finances on agencies, cities and counties.”
Jones stressed that 911 dispatchers are the vital first link in the emergency response chain, and that decision-makers need to “step back and understand that when they dial 911.” She and her fellow 911 operators will not give up on getting first responder designation, she said.
“I’m hopeful. I’m optimistic,” she continued. “We’re going to continue to push—we’re going to continue to be out front on this simply because it’s deserving.”
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd began his 50-year law enforcement career as a dispatcher. To celebrate National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, he and other officers and staff dress up, utilizing different themes every day for the entire week.
“We love our people in the Emergency Call Centers,” Judd said.
With national labor shortages impacting the United States, emergency dispatch centers are suffering shortages as well.
Former Chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission, David Turetsky told reporters in 2021 that one of the many reasons why emergency dispatchers should be designated as first responders is because being capable of doing the job puts a lot of weight on the operators and it is “vital to our public safety.”
Untimely Death Changes 911 System
U.S. 911 call centers or public safety answering points (PSAPS) are managed by various entities such as state and local agencies, including law enforcement, fire departments, hospitals and private emergency medical services (EMS) companies. That can present a challenge when it comes to training telecommunicators, as each entity has its own educational standards. There are also challenges as to which jurisdiction handles the calls that come in.That issue rose to the surface in 2008 in the death of a 21-year-old mother after she was kidnapped, raped and murdered. Because of a lack of clear communication between local Florida 911 centers, law enforcement was not able to save her.
On Jan. 17, 2008, Denise Amber Lee was abducted from her home by a Florida man later identified as Michael King. During the abduction, Lee herself, as well as others, attempted to call for help using the 911 system. The two counties involved in the 911 calls were Sarasota and Charlotte, which between them received five 911 calls. After an investigation of the 911 systems, it was found that Charlotte County “mishandled” one of the more important 911 calls that day. Five different people—between 3:29 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on January 17—placed 911 calls, but the most important one was made by a witness, Jane Kowalski who was giving a detailed account of events that were happening in “real-time.” Four of the calls were routed to operators in Sarasota County, while the fifth—placed by Kowalski and fourth in the sequence—was routed to operators in neighboring Charlotte County. The call routed to Charlotte County allegedly was mishandled.
“Failures were found in the way the 911 operators handled Kowalski’s call, and additional failures were identified nationwide in the 911 system,” according to an investigative report. Kowalski thought she was witnessing a child abduction and followed the car that had Lee in it. In later testimony, she identified King as the driver of the car. However, when she called 911 from her cell phone, the neighboring town of the North Port Police Department answered. Because Kowalski was giving details in real-time as she was following King’s car, the location of which agency should handle the call changed as locations changed between city and county authorities. During the course of the investigation, it became apparent that the call had not been forwarded to the correct authorities. It is this call that is alleged to have been mishandled due to the fact that the operators neglected to file it correctly, the report said. After the trial, King was found guilty and got the death penalty.
Two years later, in 2010, the Florida legislature addressed the fact that 911 operators throughout the state were not required to undertake mandatory training. Lee’s father and husband lobbied for Denise’s law which recommended mandatory training and certification for all 911 dispatchers.
Lee County Makes a Difference
With advances in technology and training, 911 systems continue to make strides in the way calls are received and handled; 911 teams now get six months of training and texting 911 is available as well, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno told The Epoch Times.
“They work very hard,” Marceno said of 911 operators. “You know first responders generally are the ones that are in the field on [the] scene,” he said. “But in the big picture, they’re still the first call. They’re relaying pertinent information—it’s a very stressful job.”
No one calls 911 “for no reason,” he said.
“As an intake operator, you really don’t know what’s coming your way—but you’re ready for anything that comes your way,” he said. “Afterwards, there’s a point where you stop and think about it—we need to make sure that we help everyone get through a critical incident.”
The Lee County Sheriff considers everyone who reports to him as “family” and said he wants to make sure his 911 dispatchers are part of the debriefing process.
“When you’re dealing with an extremely traumatic situation, it affects everybody differently,” he said. “We make certain that everyone’s treated like family and we get that person the help they need.”
During his tenure as sheriff, Marceno said he keeps up with training and in 2017 attended the FBI Academy, where he took the Employee Assistance Program.
“I learned a lot about the FBI and how they have programs to fight PTS and PTSD and assist employees,” he said. “I came back with the mindset that I wanted to make sure we’re doing everything we can locally. But I do believe nationally, we try the best we can. We take care of our employees because we’re family.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently announced $1,000 bonuses for the state’s first responders. However, 911 operators, unless certified as EMTs or paramedics, do not receive these bonuses. Marceno said he realizes the importance of 911 operators and is giving them $1.000 bonuses out of his operating budget.
“The civilians here, the non-gun badge toting civilians do such a great job here and they are critical to our success,” he said in justifying bonuses for 911 operators. “I felt that it was for everyone to get that bonus and I left no one behind.”
