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FIRST FIRST RESPONDERS: Sheriff's office honors those who field 911 calls

Telecommunicator Shanna Dotson works a recent shift at the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office 911 center.

By Amy McCraw, Published: April 17, 2024

The words “first responder” likely stir images of firefighters, police officers and emergency medical workers in the minds of many people.

But in Henderson County, it’s telecommunicators working in a darkened and windowless basement who first answer frantic 911 calls for help and provide often lifesaving instruction before any emergency responders arrive on the scene.
“They say we are the first First Responders, but we’re not always treated as such,” said Shanna Dotson, who has worked as a telecommunicator with the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office for eight years.
The sheriff’s office honored its telecommunicators this week (April 14-20) during National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.
NPSTW began in 1981 by Patricia Anderson of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office in California. In 1994, President Clinton signed Presidential Proclamation 6667, declaring the second week of April as NPSTW. The week is a time to celebrate and thank telecommunications personnel across the nation who serve communities, citizens and public safety personnel 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to the website for the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency.
Sheriff’s department telecommunicators in Henderson County work 24 hours a day, seven days a week dispatching calls to 13 fire departments, three law enforcement agencies and Henderson County’s emergency medical service and rescue squad. They undergo six months of training to do the job and receive continuing education and mandatory yearly training to stay proficient.
When fully staffed, the 911 center employs 24 people with four people working each shift.
Dotson, who worked a recent shift in dispatch with fellow telecommunicator Emily Simpson and a few others, said getting recognition is nice given that their efforts in the basement are “a little forgotten” and not as glamorous as the work of police officers or firefighters.
Glamorous or not, a well-trained dispatcher might mean the difference between life and death during a medical emergency, the difference between a suspect being caught and later convicted in a law enforcement emergency and difference between a home burning down or being saved during a fire call.
Sitting at a desk and facing a bank of computer screens, telecommunicators in Henderson County log information from the 911 calls they answer into their computers. Others in the same room simultaneously use the information taken from the callers to alert the appropriate agencies and give those agencies instruction while they are enroute to the scene.
The system allows dispatchers to have help on the way while at the same time assisting and gathering more information from callers.
Simpson, who has worked as a telecommunicator for three years, said people calling 911 should know “help is on the way” even if the telecommunicator they are speaking with is continuing to ask them questions and give them instructions.
The computers also give telecommunicators access to lifesaving information they relay to callers who report emergencies including heart attack, stroke, choking and severe bleeding among other incidents.
While answering emergency calls for help can be difficult, Simpson and Dotson both said the reward they get from helping others is worth the stress.
“This is truly something different every day,” Simpson said. “I go home at the end of the day and feel like I’ve helped somebody.”
The emotions they feel while hearing the panic and anguish of callers also differ somewhat from those of responders who arrive at the scene, they said.
“It’s different being on the phone. It’s only as bad as your imagination,” Simpson said.
The work also helps keep their own lives in perspective.
“This job is almost an escape,” Dotson said. “You’re dealing with other people’s worst day. It makes you thankful at the end of the day for what you have and getting people what they need.”
Still, Dotson and Simpson said some calls haunt them.
“Everybody has a couple of calls they don’t want to relive or hear again,” Simpson said.
Dotson said she can’t shake a call involving a child the same age as her son who was mauled by a pitbull. She heard both the caller’s screams and the screams of the child during the call.
At a later debriefing session with emergency responders, Dotson learned that the little boy attacked by the dog wore shoes matching her son’s shoes.
Dotson said she went home after the meeting and promptly threw her son’s shoes in the trash.
“For me, calls with children are the most difficult,” she said.
Other calls are just too funny to forget.
Simpson says she remembers the time a man called to tell authorities that his father was having a mental break and needed to be located.
The caller told dispatchers his father “was on his way to Henderson County to marry his alien girlfriend.”
Authorities eventually found the man and safely reunited him with his son.
They never found a girlfriend, alien or human, Simpson said with a smile.
Dotson said she remembers the time a truck driver going down the Saluda Grade on Interstate 26 called because he was alarmed by a sign that showed a truck going straight down the mountain.
After determining the trucker wasn’t in danger, Dotson said she explained that the sign was just a caution for truck drivers to be aware of the grade.
“He just wasn’t familiar with the mountains. I said, ‘You aren’t going to go off the side of the cliff,’” she said. “He was just a funny guy.”
Regardless of the seriousness of the situation, the telecommunicators said location is the single most important information 911 callers can give.
“The most important thing to know is where you are located,” Simpson said. “We can get help started as long as we know where you are.”
Knowing when to and when not to call 911 is also important, they said.
Dotson said her least favorite calls are the ones that begin with “I know this is not an emergency, but…”
911 should not be used to report power outages, other non-emergency situations or when someone simply needs to speak with an officer.
People should also know that they can call 911 even if they don’t have cell phone service because 911 calls will be relayed off of the cell towers of other service providers. Cell towers also sometimes reroute calls to the 911 centers of other counties depending on the location of a caller.
Telecommunicators prefer to receive in-person calls, but 911 calls can also be texted, they said.
As they enjoy their special week filled with balloons and other recognition from the sheriff’s department and the agencies they assist, Simpson, Dotson and the other telecommunicators in Henderson County said the job itself brings enough satisfaction to get them through the rest of the year.
“This is a very complex job, not everybody can do it,” Dotson said. “If you can work here, you can do any job.”
The sheriff’s office has open telecommunicator positions. Starting pay is $22.15 and there is an increase after certifications are attained. To apply for open positions at the sheriff’s office, visit sheriffhendersoncounty.com . To reach the sheriff’s office for non-emergencies, call 828-697-4911.