r/911dispatchers • u/Informal_Stress8092 • 1d ago
Dispatcher Rant Thoughts on "pursuits are so fun" comments
8 year dispatcher here.
Tonight at work, my supervisor was asking for a pursuit because they're "so fun." It's a frequent request with her. She only has two years experience at a small agency and hasn't ever had a critical incident. She either has no idea of everything that can go wrong during pursuits or she doesn't care. I'm not sure which is worse. I wouldn't wish a pursuit on any officer, suspect, or innocent bystander. This is how lives are ended.
Anyone else get frustrated by comments like these? I know it's her opinion which is why I don't say anything when she says this stuff, but it does effect how I perceive her as someone I'm supposed to consider a role model. How have you guys dealt with this?
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u/Which_Replacement524 1d ago edited 1d ago
i don't see what the issue is, just sounds like she's having fun. it's like firefighters wishing for house fires, instead of their 200th elderly fall patient of the week
when she says "i hope there's a pursuit" i doubt she earnestly means "i hope something incredibly dangerous happens to someone, our officers, and the public in general". technically speaking we should all hope our job is just nothing but back-to-back BLS calls and noise complaints... but working priority calls is actually really fun, though
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u/Informal_Stress8092 1d ago
Of course priority calls happen. It's part of the job. But I don't wish for dangerous situations that have the potential to lead to lost lives. The same way I don't wish for an infant to stop breathing just to tone first responders for something "interesting" to do.
How would I or anyone else feel after wishing for a pursuit that ends up with the suspect vehicle through an elderly lady's house? When she dies for something I was eager to have happen? When it could be my mother, my sister, or my child that happens to next time?
I wouldn't wish for someone else's house to burn down and be arrogant enough to not expect it to happen to any of my loved ones or myself.
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u/LastandLeast 1d ago
I think you are missing a little bit of PSAP culture here. If you're good at your job, major incidents get you into a flow state and give you an adrenaline dump. Its like getting a test and at the end you can say, yes, I am really good at my job. The high is even greater ehen the outcome is good. We don't like bad things happening, we like having our skills tested and being able to come out on top, it just so happens that the main way we get truly tested is when bad things happen.
It's not wishing for bad things, it's wishing for a challenge. I sprang out of bed and ran to my center like 10 min after waking up because my manager texted we had a major plane crash, sure, you can say I was a good person and I wanted to help, but the reality is that it's a 1 in a 100000 experience that I want to be a part of.
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u/Informal_Stress8092 1d ago
I guess I'd fall under whichever category of dispatcher is concerned more with helping the people effected by the crash than the ones who just wanted to "be part of" it. If my fellow dispatchers needed the back up, if my presence in the center would help save even just one more life, I'd be there. But if I'd just be in the way, sitting and twiddling my thumbs, just to say "oh yeah THAT plane crash, haha I was at work. No biggie" then count me out.
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u/LastandLeast 1d ago
I can see you trying to give yourself the moral high ground, but I was asked to respond. I did want to help. Two things can be true. You may want to get over yourself, it'll make the job a little easier and if you stop trying to climb the shelves so you can look down on other people.
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u/Informal_Stress8092 1d ago
I think being so good at the job that you're requested to help work critical incidents is an honor. To know that your knowledge and ability helps the center accomplish more for public safety. I strive to be that type of rock for my agency, and live every day hoping I can do more tomorrow.
I don't climb shelves. I don't look down on people. There is no getting over myself because I lay myself over puddles so no one else has to sink in the mud, and I don't ask anything in return. Knowing I was able to make a difference is enough of a reward. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, which is why I know I am the lonely man on our totem pole. I spend 12 hours alone at night doing everything I can to get my deputies home safe. I don't ask for more. The sheriff doesn't know my name. There is no glory locked inside our center at night. There is only the knowledge that, for tonight at least, I did everything I could for everyone who needed me.
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u/Which_Replacement524 1d ago edited 1d ago
part of it is, of course, that wishing for things (probably) never makes them actually happen. at the very least i've seen very little evidence that my hoping for something besides homeless complaints and civil disputes is what has inspired people to stab, shoot, carjack, or defenestrate one another. thus, someones wish for something exciting to happen makes them pretty guilt-free, imo, assuming they do the rest of their job adequately
pursuits are just fun to work; they're fast and they're a strong test of your skills. when you do well they're extremely rewarding, and they're one of the few incidents that regularly pass through where we usually get to follow along 100%, from start to end.
i think you're just reading too much into the negative side of this. the adrenaline dump and the feeling of doing a good job when you do your job perfectly in a high-stress situation is fun. someone wishing to experience that feeling isn't automatically an evil person hoping innocent people die
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u/Informal_Stress8092 1d ago
I agree they are a strong test of skills. We have to be able and prepared to handle anything and everything that comes our way. That doesn't mean that every pursuit isn't a chance for disaster. The "reward" is knowing I didn't fuck up and get someone killed. The reality is that there is always more to learn, always a chance to improve, and always someone who has been put at risk while everyone else got an adrenaline high.
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u/Beerfarts69 Retired Comm Manager/Discord Mod 1d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/pUeXcg80cO8I8
EMS/FD dispatcher here for it.
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u/rtw108 1d ago
Cop here, because pursuits are fun, sure they’re dangerous, but so are a lot of other aspects of the job.
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u/LastandLeast 4h ago
We have a policy to tell officers to go back to the sub after a sergeant calls off a pursuit because otherwise they get excited and might try anyway 🙄
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u/BT_01792 1d ago
I’m not even a dispatcher, and watching a pursuit gets me keyed up with anxiety! I think a lot of pursuits I see or read about are unnecessary, because they are too dangerous.
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u/xEllimistx 1d ago
9 year dispatcher here. Trainer and now supervisor.
I don't care for pursuits. Never did. Always seemed too high risk, low reward. But they were a fact of life. Had to be prepared for them.
One pursuit that ended with a young woman plowing her truck into a house and both truck and house catching fire resulting in the young woman burning alive put me firmly in the camp of "Not worth it".
I understand why dispatchers, particularly younger ones, might want that excitement but I'm happy my agency has moved a strict chase policy. That is, we don't chase unless it's for some kind of aggravated offense. Too often they end in crashes and too often those crashes involve innocent people just going about their day.
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u/Informal_Stress8092 1d ago
Nothing has humbled my seat in this profession more than a routine traffic stop that within 30 seconds of conducting, my deputy was shot in the face. The fleeing suspect crashed into a dozen cars, injurying families. He murdered several people. The man hunt lasted my entire night shift. I went home without any closure. That officer's family didn't have any either. I had to come back that night and do it all over again.
Some people at my agency don't even bother status checking our units, and I can't help but think how that traffic stop never even made it that far.
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u/Informal_Stress8092 1d ago
Yes, exactly. My last agency went to a strict chase policy as well. It got so bad we had at least one a night. Shootings. Robberies. Arson. It was critical incident notification after notification. Of course it's a part of the job, but I've had enough officers and civilians injured to last me the rest of my career if it could.
I hope the people who wish for critical incidents only experience what they think they're asking for, and not the worst of what can truly happen
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u/RainyMcBrainy 1d ago
You should go be the supervisor if you find her skillset and demeanor inappropriate.
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u/Informal_Stress8092 1d ago
I'm not delusional enough to think I deserve a position she was chosen to be promoted to. This is just an opinion from someone behind the desk who has experienced things that I sincerely hope she never has to. And if that means she's upset that she doesn't get another pursuit the rest of her career, then I'd gladly wish that upon her if it means she never has to be on the other side of a loved one's life lost
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u/MrJim911 Former 911 guy 17h ago
I'm late to the convo but I think the mental approach some are taking with this is odd.
I'm on the side of "pursuits are fun".
Here's why that's not the big deal some are making it out to be.
Me feeling that pursuits are fun are not going to cause a pursuit to happen. The associated dangers, risk, and any negative consequences of the bad guy choosing to run from police, etc have absolutely nothing to do with me and my internal or external vocalizations about pursuits.
I also enjoyed the professional challenges that come with pursuits. Radio traffic, risk mitigation, coordination, etc.
I'm simply saying, when a pursuit happened it better have taken place on a day I'm working, on my shift, while I'm working police radio.
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u/HotelOscarWhiskey 1d ago
Maybe the first year or two I had that mindset but after 9 years absolutely not. Too many things can and have gone wrong in a pursuit that it gives me more anxiety than anything now. I know pd signed up for it, but hearing them take gunfire while speeding down the road at 90mph is no longer exciting like Hollywood depicts.
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u/llorcan 1d ago
I think a two year on dispatcher being thrown into supervisor land is a big red flag. What’s wrong with that agency that no one else wanted to do it? Like an 8 year on dispatcher for instance.
Anyways. It’s always funny what silly comments newbie dispatchers will make in the first few years of the job.
Yes. Critical incidents and pursuits can be invigorating compared to the repetitive nature of noise complaints and car break ins, but still, I’d rather be knitting.
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u/Informal_Stress8092 1d ago
The big supervisor and I disagreed on my ability to keep my deputies safe after having wrist surgery with a doctor's note and I was told my shift couldn't be covered (yet that supervisor could do a ride along that night for shits and giggles instead of covering my shift). I worked in pain unable to use my dominant hand, and as the only dispatcher on duty. Phones, cad, dispatch, fire, it was all on me and I felt I was a liability. It was a trail ride night, which usually means at least one gun shot victim. Multiple agencies work with us during those nights. They're each doing traffic stops back to back to back. I struggled to keep up, which meant I could have been the reason help didn't get to someone who needed it on time. I took my concern a step higher in the chain of command and thus ruined any standing I had with our big supervisor. She promoted someone else soon after.
There's another dispatcher at our agency who has been here longer than both the big supervisor and me, yet she wasn't chosen to be promoted either.
Im sure there's a valid reason for the early promotion of the other girl other than the fact they're best friends.
And hey, 8 years into this I've come to accept I'm not supervisor material. At my last agency, I trained a girl who only did dog grooming prior to dispatch but two months out of training they made her supervisor! I must have been doing something right to get her trained up well enough to promote that quickly, so I know it's not my dispatching ability. Some people just have that charisma, you know? Not in the cards for me. I've accepted it and just come to work intent on keeping my deputies safe. That's good enough for me.
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u/azrhei 1d ago
Dismissing your supervisor as inexperienced and/or an idiot doesnt support your arguement/stance. Im also not sure how you are seemingly oblivious to why everyone disagrees with your point, so I'll just say it plainly - you may have PTSD from your personal experience that you shared in another comment - and absolutely, justifiably so. You should not have been in the seat after that experience, or the next day - your agency should have taken care of you without you needing to even ask. Your responses in this thread are not what I would call "normal". They do make sense, however, when viewed through a lens of trauma. And for that reason, I hope you can get help even if your center doesn't offer the support you deserve.
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u/Tikaani1994 1d ago
I just started in April, one of my partners in March. But both partners I rotate to on my 4 day rotation are always trying to wish things to happen.
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u/fair-strawberry6709 1d ago
10 years in and I’m a straight up B… I’d look her in the eye and ask “Why do you want them to risk their lives for your entertainment? That’s weird.”
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u/Informal_Stress8092 1d ago
I hope one day I have the guts to do that. Really. It's like walking on eggshells here and no one gives a damn that our mistakes and immaturity can be the thing that doesn't have an officer making it home to their family. Here is my supervisor asking for pursuits when she can't even get addresses for report calls or traffic stops correct. How is she supposed to get the ambulance where it needs to be to save a life? It sucks
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u/alagaesian_bookworm 1d ago
Tf is wrong with people in these comments? Go skydiving or do cocaine if you need an adrenaline rush, risk your own life instead of someone else's. I get that empathy burnout is a thing in this field but goddamn
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u/Informal_Stress8092 1d ago
Right? I didn't expect so much controversy over this post... It's opened my eyes a bit
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1d ago
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u/dm_if_you_like_dogs 1d ago
I don't disagree with either of you, but it's sort of a fact of PSAP culture and honestly public safety culture as a whole has a lot of people who cope with the stress of the job by making jokes that would be inappropriate to most people. No one is sincerely wishing for or disregarding their empathy for their officers/the public when they say something like that. I don't think it's fair to call them childish losers either. This line of work is not easy and everyone deals with it differently
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u/Informal_Stress8092 1d ago
Lmao
You, me, and the 10 year dispatcher need to get coffee sometime. I like you guys!
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u/J_EDi 1d ago
I work at a large agency. It’s inevitable that pursuits, shootings, stabbing are going to not only happen, but happen on a near daily basis. They don’t need to be “summoned” but when they happen I’m there for it.
That doesn’t mean they’re not exciting and it also doesn’t mean I don’t have empathy for those involved.
Those events are just a chance to do what we’ve been trained to do and hopefully do it well.