What happens when people call 9-1-1?

SAN DIEGO – “9-1-1, What is Your Emergency?”

When people need help, these words are their lifeline. The dispatcher, never seen and rarely thanked, is often their last hope.

When people call 9-1-1, they are sent to their local law-enforcement dispatcher – police, sheriff or California Highway Patrol (CHP). The appropriate agency is determined by the following:

• Land line: The phone’s location determines the proper law enforcement agency.
• Cell phone: About 80 percent of 9-1-1 calls are from cell phones. Newer cell phones have GPS capabilities that allow dispatch to determine location. Older phones without sophisticated GPS technology, however, only allow dispatch computers to triangulate an approximate location from the cell towers transmitting the call.
• Freeway (cell phone) calls: These are automatically sent to the CHP.

The 9-1-1 law enforcement operator will do his or her best to determine the location and the nature of the emergency. If it is a police emergency, the caller will remain with police dispatch. If it is a fire or medical emergency, the call is automatically routed to a fire department dispatch center.

The fire dispatch centers in San Diego County:

• Military bases: Camp Pendleton; Miramar Air Station; and military bases around San Diego harbor area
• US Forest Service
• San Diego City: San Diego, Poway, and South Bay cities
• North Comm: Del Mar north and west of I-15 (including North County Fire District)
• Escondido City
• Heartland: La Mesa east to Alpine and Spring Valley north to Lakeside & Santee
• Cal Fire (Monte Vista): all remaining rural portions of San Diego County

Once fire dispatch receives the location and nature of the emergency, that information is entered into the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. CAD automatically determines the appropriate units to send depending on the location and nature of the emergency.

The dispatch system is borderless, in that it automatically sends the closest fire units regardless of the jurisdiction. The closest unit is determined not by the closest fire station, but through the use of Automatic Vehicle Locators (AVL), which know the location of every fire unit in San Diego County, whether it is in the station or out on the road.

Dispatchers must have a calm temperament and be able to deal with all kinds of people.

“The activity level can be very quiet and then a flurry of calls comes in with multiple emergencies," said Tracy Lynn, San Diego City Fire Dispatch Administrator. "The room becomes extremely active.”

Training lasts for approximately 10 weeks, and then new hires are monitored closely on the job for another several months to make sure they have access to the expertise required to respond to different situations.

The dispatchers get anything from accidental "butt dials" to life or death assistance needed. Dispatchers never know what is coming, how the call will go, or if they will learn the outcome. Dispatchers often say the hardest calls they deal with relate to the death of a child or officer involved shootings. However, there are positive calls too.

“It is not uncommon for a dispatcher to save a life or bring a new life into the world by providing instruction on CPR or child birth," said Lynn. "Sometimes people contact us to say thank you. Those are great days.”

If the emergency requires the dispatcher to stay on the call to get more information, help the reporting party provide medical treatment, or monitor a child, they will do that. However according to Lynn, “children are often far more calm than adults in emergency situations.”

As dispatchers gather more information from the original caller or subsequent callers on the same incident, they pass that along to the fire units which are already en route to that emergency. Fire units upon arriving at the scene of the incident can request more units or cancel units which were dispatched but are not needed at the scene.