ENID — The phone rings. Then another and another two.

Although the three operators in the Enid and Garfield County 911 Center are taking emergency calls, someone is still running a license plate for a police officer while another checks for the nearest fire hydrants to a reported structure fire.

“You definitely have to be a multi-tasker,” said Supervisor Brandi LaRowe, as another alarm sounds, sounding like an antique car horn, alerting a dispatcher to check on an officer in the field. “We dispatch for police, city fire and all the fire departments in Garfield County.”

Phones calls and alarms are only briefly punctuated by seconds of silence. In a span of 45 minutes, LaRowe and operators Amanda Norton and Deborah Morse have taken more than 50 calls, mostly from panicked or upset callers.

The women speak firmly, but calmly, to each caller, trying to obtain further information for the officers and firefighters responding. All the while, the women are updating a Computer Aided Dispatching Monitoring system, which prioritizes calls and gives officers updated information received from calls.



Not a job for everyone



“Not everybody is cut out to be a dispatcher,” said Enid and Garfield County 911 Call Center Director Lt. Eric Holtzclaw. “It takes a certain quality to handle the calls and stress of the 911 Center.”

The center employs 20 operators, who have undergone a stringent hiring process, that includes a background check, a typing test and passing a split-listening test.

Holtzclaw said the requirements are “almost equivalent to applying to be a police officer.”

“We’ve got to make sure they’re trustworthy and have the integrity to do the job,” he said.

Training for 911 operators includes an immediate 16-day classroom training session upon hiring, followed by 32 days of training with another dispatcher. Operators also spend a week in Oklahoma City training to use the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Terminal System, used extensively by police to check for warrants, valid driver’s licenses and vehicle tags.

Holtzclaw also said operators must attend formal training classes, often taught at Autry Technology Center, as part of the job training. Dispatch-ers also must have a high school diploma and undergo the city of Enid’s hiring process.

The center employs 20 operators, who work three 12-hour shifts and a 4-hour shift in a week. On average, the 911 center receives about 1,500 911 calls and an average of 600 non-emergency calls in a month. That works out to about 25,200 calls answered by 911 operators in a year.



Difficult job to do



Supervisor Nikkie Pritchett, who has worked in the call center for five years, said stress is a big part of the job.

The former hotel clerk said when she began the job it was “overwhelming” at first.

“The first two weeks I went home crying,” Pritchett said, noting with proper training she got over the stress. “Eventually, it becomes second nature to you.

“It was very, very stressful at first,” she said. “It can be so stressful that it turns a lot of people off this job. It takes a special person to do this job and it’s not for everybody.”

Brittany Parker, who’s worked as an operator for two years, said the job is difficult because operators are the first person responsible in each emergency situation.

“I think you definitely have to have a lot of patience and compassion,” she said. “It’s a very, very stressful job but you make a difference, even if it’s just with that one person.”

Operator Anthony Caywood said multi-tasking was the key to being a good call taker or dispatcher.

“You’ve got to be able to multi-task,” Caywood said. “You just kind of get used to it, prioritize it in your mind, what you’ve got to do.”

The 11-year-plus veteran of the call center said operators have to get past the stress of each call to get information for those they dispatch.

“When you get a caller that calls in a panic, you have to take the snippets of information and ask leading questions,” Caywood said. “You try to get them to focus on something solid and get them away from the panic.”

He too said the call center isn’t for everyone.

“It’s not a job for everyone,” Caywood said. “You have to not connect yourself to the caller because we dispatch everything from somebody egged my car to somebody dying.”

Dispatcher Brittany Ware said her family has been involved in law enforcement but even it didn’t prepare her for the job.

“I come from a long line of dispatchers,” she said. “My mom was a dispatcher and my dad was a deputy and jailer in Noble County. So I guess you could say it’s in my blood.”

When she first started the job a year and a half ago, she wasn’t sure what to expect.

“I wasn’t aware of the high-intensity calls you get when people are screaming as loud as they can,” Ware said. “That was something I wasn’t prepared for.”

Even the 911 center’s director acknowledges the stresses of the job.

“It goes from total ho-hum to chaos in seconds,” Holtzclaw said, “and it happens like that three or four times a shift. It goes from silence to chaos and that’s what you have to work around.”



Extensive training



When a new hire finishes his or her initially training, he or she still must work toward certifications to dispatch police and fire department calls.

Parker said the process takes some time.

“You’re really not fully trained until you’re a year into it,” she said. Operators are trained as call takers, who take administrative calls, and are then trained as police dispatchers and fire dispatchers.

“It was about a year before I was trained on all three,” Parker said.

Pritchett said there always is ongoing training and continuing education classes operators attend.

“Even if you’ve been here three or four years there are always training classes,” Pritchett said. “I think you can learn something new every day,”

“The lieutenant makes sure that everyone is well trained,” Morse said. “It’s very impressive. It’s very, very effective.”

Dispatcher Erica Moses said the training operators undergo is extensive, but necessary.

“You have to go through extensive training,” she said. “I didn’t know there were so many rules.”

She said the training improves the help they can provide callers.

“We’re basically their life-link during an emergency,” Moses said. “We’re behind the stage.

Eliseo Lizama, who’s been an operator for almost a year, said the job requires a large set of skills.

“There’s a lot of things you’ve got to do and know how to do,” Lizama said. “There is always something new to learn.”

“I don’t think the public realize all we do here,” Pritchett said. “We’re not just answering phones, there is a lot that goes on.”



It’s the job for them



Several operators said their job wasn’t for everyone, but each said it was the job for them.

“This is the perfect job for me,” LaRowe said.

“There’s so many things going on that it keeps me entertained, for lack of a better word,” she said. “It’s just so interesting and no two days are the same.”

Morse said she couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

“My entire family are police in New Orleans,” she said. “I never knew anything different. Since I was a baby I was listening to my dad’s scanner and uncles’ radios.

“I love doing this,” Morse said. “I enjoy it. It’s fun.”

It’s a pretty cool job,” Lizama said. “You get to meet a lot of people and interact with a lot of people.”

Moses said she enjoyed the job because of the change of pace it offers.

“Every day you hear something new,” she said. “Every day we get new calls.”

Pritchett said the stress is the worst part of the job, but it has its benefits.

“I think at the end of the day it’s worth it because there’s people you’ve helped.”