DENVER — The pulse at the Denver 911 center maintains a steady beat, be it a slow day or one filled with emergencies.
A coordinated calm permeates the room that hosts all the city’s 911 services, including emergency operators, police, fire and medical dispatchers. Beyond the pulsating alarm that occasionally sounds in each department, the room is quiet except for the ambient chatter of life-saving communication.
For its work in 2008, which included successfully executing two years’ worth of planning for the Democratic National Convention, the center was named the 911 Colorado Center of the Year by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials.
“When it’s busy it just seems like it runs like a fine-oiled machine,” said James Azuero, the assistant chief of communications in the paramedic division. “People think, ‘Oh, my God, it’s going to get swamped there and they’re going to make mistakes.’ That’s when we’re at our best.”
When emergency operators receive a call, they relay the information to the proper department. A dispatcher then notifies the available units closest to the scene.
In the past 12 months, Denver 911 has fielded more than 1.4 million emergency calls, with a majority going to police dispatch.
“We’re dealing with somebody’s worst day on a constant basis,” Azuero said. “There’s people who can’t handle that. It takes a special kind of person.”
Training is integral to the center’s efficiency. Dispatchers train for three months while emergency operators train for two.
“When you set a good base of training when the emergency actually happens you do it automatically, because you fall back on the way you’ve trained,” said John Boller , a police dispatcher at the center for 17 years.
Two-year emergency operator Antoinette Atencio said the mark of a career operator is a heightened sense of patience and a short memory. Atencio said she tries to leave work at the office. That’s easier said than done because operators rarely know how the story ends for the people they help.
“When I hang up with a caller I get a ‘thank you’ during a majority of my calls,” she said. “To me the gratification is that thank you. At least I know I satisfied that person and helped them.”
