By Ben Aguirre Jr.
The Contra Costa Times
NEWARK, Calif. — Stressful. That’s the word that best describes the job of a Police or Fire Department dispatcher.
“Every time that phone rings, you don’t know what’s going on on the other end of that line,” said Matt Reymundo, an emergency dispatcher for the city of Newark.
Sometimes it’s a person reporting that their toilet is overflowing, or that a cat has climbed up a tree; not exactly reasons to call 911.
But occasionally there are frantic calls from mothers reporting that their child is missing, incidents that often end happily when the boy or girl is found hiding under the bed or playing at a friend’s house.
And every once in a while, there is that call that will haunt a dispatcher, no matter how much he or she tries to forget.
“It hasn’t gone away.” Reymundo said, recalling a decade-old incident in which a woman was being shot at while on the phone with authorities. “She was just screaming.”
In his blood
Reymundo, 38, of San Jose, has spent the last 18 years as a dispatcher in Newark.
He grew up in Hayward as the son and grandson of two Alameda County Sheriff’s Office deputies his grandfather a full-time deputy, his father a reserve.
With emergency work in his blood, Reymundo was certain that he wanted to either be a firefighter or a police officer. He enrolled in Chabot College after graduating in 1989 from the now-defunct Sunset High School in Hayward.
One aspiration was to be an officer in his hometown.
“I wanted to be a police officer in Hayward because I knew where all the bad guys were,” he said. “I figured I could clean up the streets.”
One of the first classes he took in college was an introduction to administration of justice. The instructor told the class about a cadet program with the Newark Police Department, a gig that intrigued Reymundo.
In 1990, he was accepted into the program, and for a year he served as a police service aide, a job in which he assisted office workers.
After that first year, cadets were assigned other types of police work. Reymundo wound up in the dispatch center.
“I went into that room not knowing what I wanted to do,” Reymundo said. But after doing the job only for a few months, he “fell in love with it,” he said.
For a year, Reymundo worked as a temporary dispatcher. Then in 1992 less than a year after becoming a father he was hired on full time.
Reymundo, now a father of two an 18-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter has since become the department’s senior dispatcher, and has won the city’s Dispatcher of the Year Award three times.
“Matt is an outstanding dispatcher,” said Police Chief Jim Leal, who was a relatively new patrol officer when Reymundo began his career.
Two of Reymundo’s greatest assets are his ability to remain calm in any situation, and his knowledge of the job, Leal said.
“He thinks like a police officer,” the chief said.
Brain and body
The setup of a dispatch center can vary in each city or agency.
Sometimes the call center is dedicated solely to police or fire work; other times there are multiple people who handle a single call before a squad car or fire engine is alerted to an incident.
In Newark, the dispatch center is the hub for all activity within the city: police, fire and other city services.
“We’re the brain, and they are the body,” Reymundo said.
The city employs 10 dispatchers. Each works three 12-1/2 hour shifts per week, plus an additional 10-hour shift each month, Reymundo said. Their lunchtime and 15-minute breaks often are taken nearby just in case an emergency occurs.
During most shifts, two dispatchers work in the call center. A third is usually on duty during weekends, and for some holidays, such as the Fourth of July.
“The phones are ringing nonstop,” Reymundo said, speaking of Independence Days he has worked. “It’s the busiest day of the year.”
The two dispatchers have similar duties, yet slightly different roles.
One is in charge of dispatching firefighters, running crime suspects’ names through multiple databases, and answering most of the phone calls.
The other sits in what is dubbed the “hot seat” handling the most important police calls, keeping track of where police officers are deployed, dispatching units and monitoring all radio traffic from police officers in the field, and occasionally from neighboring agencies.
The hot seat dispatcher, who uses four computer screens at once, is usually the most experienced of those on duty, Reymundo said.
Stress takes a toll
Imagine sitting in a small, dark room for a dozen hours waiting for the phone to ring, and when it does more than 100 times a day the caller is reporting a crisis.
“It’s an extremely difficult position,” Leal said, noting that the burnout rate among emergency dispatchers nationwide is fairly high.
On average, dispatchers without any previous emergency work last less than five years, Reymundo said. Part of the reason is the extreme amount of stress they deal with daily, he said.
“It takes a toll on your body,” Reymundo said, adding that in a single shift, dispatchers go through several emotional cycles.
Stress is something all emergency workers face. Firefighters, paramedics and police officers all see and do things that average citizens don’t.
While dispatchers deal with the same stresses as other emergency personnel, they often have a more difficult time letting go of an incident, Leal said.
“Their adrenaline goes up, their emotions go up (during a call),” he said. “And afterward ... dispatchers go right onto the next call.”
Like police officers and firefighters, dispatchers have access to counselors whenever they are needed. Occasionally, dispatchers simply talk to the officers or firefighters to get closure on certain calls.
“I talk to these guys at work and outside of work,” Reymundo said. “They are like family.”
Pops in the background
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Reymundo has never handled a gun, nor has he seen one fired in person. In fact, the first time he heard a gun being fired, other than on television, was that night a decade ago when the woman called to report that an acquaintance was shooting at her from outside her home.
“I could hear the pops in the background,” he said, noting that the woman was screaming and pleading for her life.
Some 30 rounds were fired into the residence before police arrived.
During the call, Reymundo advised the woman to lay down in the bathtub, which he figured would provide some protection, and make her less of a target.
As it turned out, the woman escaped uninjured and police were able to catch the shooter, he said.
Reymundo has handled several frantic emergency calls in his two decades on the job. But it was during that shooting call that he realized one of the most stressful aspects of his job.
“I may be the last person they talk to,” Reymundo said.
Copyright 2009 Contra Costa Newspapers
All Rights Reserved