California Emergency Dispatcher Association Newsletter
CAL-EDA Newsletter
June 2011
CAL-EDA President’s Message
Hello everybody!!
It’s with a heavy heart that we announce the resignation of CAL-EDA President Kurt Anderson. We wish Kurt the best in his future endeavors. (Click Here for Kurt’s message to the membership)
You may be asking yourself what will happen now. The CAL-EDA Board will continue to fulfill the mission of CAL-EDA to provide innovative and professional training, networking opportunities and to act as advocates for all California Emergency Dispatchers.
According to the CAL-EDA bylaws, I, as the Vice President will take over as President for the remainder of the President's term. I know I have some huge shoes to fill and I will work hard to fill those shoes for you.
We are excited to present your newest board members, Josh Goldmark from West-Comm, Toni Brown from Indio PD and Angela Haddad from Brea PD. We would also like to welcome Jamie Zeller back to the board. We will be making adjustments and working hard to fill other vacant board positions. If you are interested in serving as a board member, please send me an email.
In This Issue:
• Unsung Heroes of Emergency Services
CAL-EDA’S Second Anniversary Group Cruise - January 2012
Don't forget to RENEW your Membership!
Unsung Heroes of Emergency Services…
Hello California!
With another Public Safety Telecommunications Operators Appreciation Week in the books, we (The CAL-EDA Board) would like to say “Thank You” to all the Unsung Heroes of Emergency Services.
As Dispatchers you don’t carry a gun, drive a police cruiser, fire truck or ambulance, but your job is just as important as those who do. As Dispatchers, you coordinate for these responders.
Most of you didn’t choose this career for the glory and those that did, quickly learned differently. In fact, you quickly learned that you would be working ungodly hours, holidays, and massive amounts of overtime. You often have to deal with unruly callers who think their issue is bigger than anyone else’s issue. Not to mention the dinosaurs who think you are their personal secretaries. In most cases you have to make split second decisions in life or death situations. All this while being short staffed, taking breaks just long enough to use the restroom and eating your meals while fielding phone calls and radio transmissions. You miss out on functions with your children and spouses such as ball games, recitals, birthdays and anniversaries.
Is It Practical to be Tactical when it comes to Dispatch?
by Noretta Barker
There is a phenomenon sweeping the SWAT world across the country. It is an exciting trend that is the newest secret weapon in the Tactical Arsenal.
What is it? It is the inclusion of specially trained Tactical Dispatchers to the SWAT Team.
These eager, hardworking professionals enhance each SWAT team’s ability to effectively gather and disseminate tactical intelligence with more speed than ever before.
This is actually not a new thing. It has been around for more than a decade, but seems to have a refreshed vigor as more and more agencies are taking advantage of the multi-tasking abilities brought to the tactical world by mostly civilian employees.
Tactical dispatchers are being used on both large SWAT teams and smaller SWAT teams across the country in a wide variety of tasks. Each SWAT team commander has a special plan and idea how to use his or her Tactical Dispatchers.
Some teams use the tactical dispatchers to handle the radio communications from the Communication Center, ensuring they have a radio dispatcher that has been specially trained to work with the SWAT team and having an intimate knowledge of the team’s policies and working operations.
Inspirational Quote of the Month
Get happiness out of your work or you may never know what happiness is.
Elbert Hubbard
LOL Corner!
Dispatcher entered a call from the City operator to check on a hazard. In the text of the call,, the dispatcher wrote: ‘ …several chunks of assfault’ instead of asphalt!
Dispatcher was dispatching a misdemeanor assault in progress at the El Pollo Loco in Sacramento. She couldn’t quite say the business name and stumbles with “ El Pol Pol”, then blurts out, “ ohh, it’s the Crazy Chicken”!!
Cook's Corner
Pear Bacon Pizza
By Angela Haddad
• 5 Bacon slices
• ¼ C packed Brown Sugar
•
¼ t Chili Powder
•
1 Pear, cored & sliced
•
1t Lemon juice
•
4oz Cream cheese
•
¼ C Green Onions, chopped
•
1 12in Pizza Crust (thin)
•
1/3 C Pecans, chopped
•
1/3 C Feta cheese, crumbled
•
¼ C Basil, fresh
Honey (optional)
Preheat oven to 400’F. Line bottom of rimmed baking pan with foil & spray with cooking spray. Arrange bacon slices on pan and set aside. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar and chili powder. Generously sprinkle brown sugar mixture on bacon slices. Bake for 15min. or until browned. Remove and set aside. Increase oven to 450’F.
In small bowl, toss together pear slices and lemon juice. Set aside. In medium bowl, stir together cream cheese, onions and black pepper to taste. Place pizza crust on clean baking sheet. Spread cream cheese mixture on crust. Chop bacon and evenly sprinkle on cheese mixture. Arrange pear slices on bacon. Top with pecans and feta cheese.
Bake for 12-14min. or until cheese begins to brown. Sprinkle with basil and pass honey for drizzling.
NOTES:
Buy cream cheese already mixed with chives. Still yummy if you don’t use honey & basil.
Walnuts work if that’s what you like or have.
Communications Spotlight
West-Comm
(Orange County)
by Josh Goldmark
After a few questions from fellow dispatchers about the make-up of my organization, I decided to write a quick overview about us.
I work for West-Comm, which is the shortened version of “West Cities Police Communications”. We were formed in 1997 by a joint powers agreement between the Cities of Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, & Cypress. Our center is physically located in the Seal Beach Police facility and went through a facelift in 2007 which included new console furniture/workstations, sound absorbing wall material, carpet, and an extensive upgrade in technology.
Since we were first formed, we have also taken on the contract dispatch services for the Orange County Harbors, Beaches, and Parks Rangers. They patrol 20 urban and wilderness parks as well as 7 miles of beaches and coastland along with 27,000 acres of open space.
The three city police agencies are all currently operating on one primary radio frequency in the 800 mhz CCCS, or “Orange County Countywide Coordinated Communications System.” This is a recent change from many years past where we had the smaller Cities of Seal Beach and Los Alamitos on one primary, and the City of Cypress on their own primary. This is appears to be the result of an ongoing effort by the PD management and administrators to consolidate certain services of the 3 contiguous cities. The Park Rangers operate on a separate radio frequency.
Staffing of the center never goes below 3, which includes a Lead dispatcher or COIC, a communications operator in charge, qualified to fill in for the Lead. During most day shifts and peak activity hours, staffing is 4 personnel. There is one dispatcher for primary radio channel, another dispatcher handles the park ranger channel and phones, and the remaining dispatchers handle just phone calls and requests from the primary radio dispatcher. Our personnel work 12 hour shifts and usually have either Monday-Wednesday or Thursday-Saturday with all payback days worked on Sundays.
In 2010, West-Comm handled a total of 29,057 calls on 911. Our dispatchers also dealt with 94,505 total combined calls for service & officer initiated incidents. This doesn’t include the over 8,000 events related to the OC Park Rangers.
Equipment in the center includes the PEI Vesta Pallas phone system, West Covina Service Group CAD system, and Motorola Centracom Elite dispatch radio console. The CAD system supports MDT’s as well as GPS based AVL system that we monitor on a separate screen that displays all police patrol units.
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