This is national public-safety telecommunications week, and the Iowa State Patrol’s highlighting the people who answer the phone when you call 9-1-1. Captain Todd Misel works with the dispatchers, and says they’re a lifeline to troopers alone out on the highway. He says in a way the dispatchers are “the first responders for the first responders,” since anytime someone calls for help the first person they’re in touch with is the communications specialist — a dispatcher. The commander says dispatchers have special training, even though they aren’t patrol officers. They not be law-enforcement personnel, but they have to meet certain requirements including a background check, since they’re handling confidential data including law-enforcement-sensitive information. Someone broken down on the side of the road might not look like an emergency to passersby, but Captain Misel says to the stranded motorist it may be a serious situation. The communications division breaks that down, and reports that 31-thousand-861 HelpLine calls, and 32-thousand-89 wireless 9-1-1 calls. The communications-center workers also collect information that goes into the state road reports you get on radio, internet and by calling the new 5-1-1 road-info number. They partner with the D-O-T to do that, and he says in 2003, there were 328-thousand-694 calls to 5-1-1. Misel says 46 trained communications specialists work in the six state patrol communications centers, based in Des Moines, Atlantic, Storm Lake, Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, and Fairfield.
Iowa's Radio News Network
