Hayward dispatcher retiring after 34 years
By Eric Kurhi
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 12/20/2010 12:00:00 AM PST
Updated: 12/20/2010 11:19:48 AM PST
HAYWARD -- When it comes to the job of being an emergency dispatcher, said Jennie Bailey, it's definitely a case of nature, not nurture.
"I think only a rare percent of the population can do this job," said Bailey, who retired Saturday, 34 years to the day when she got her first dispatching job with Alameda County at age 18. "I don't think it's something you can learn -- it's something inside you."
It takes a tough skin and a sense of humor, she said. It takes attentiveness and the ability to rapidly communicate with alacrity and accuracy.
And more than anything, Bailey said, "it really comes down to common sense and keeping your head amid the chaos."
She said Luke Skywalker probably would have made a good dispatcher.
"It's like 'Star Wars,' " she said, "where (Skywalker) is flying the spaceship and everything is blowing up around him and he's telling himself, 'Stay on track "... Just stay on track.' "
For Bailey and her ilk, that means keeping cool in spite of what's on the other end of the line, be it panic, grief, rage or drug-addled confusion.
"People call here, and when they call, they're not calling to chat," Bailey said.
She said she'll never forget the bloodcurdling scream of a mother who just found her toddler drowned in a bathtub.
Or becoming a hostage negotiator when an intoxicated man called to say he had his mother at gunpoint and was going to kill them both.
"I was telling him to
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let her go, and he didn't want to, but I convinced him and he did," she said. "Then he shot himself. I heard the shot. "... (Hayward police) used the tape for a while for training purposes."
Bailey is often called a model dispatcher by the officers who have relied on her. Sometimes she's called more than that.
"Without reservation, she is the hottest dispatcher, and I don't mean it like that," said Alameda County sheriff's Sgt. Tom Rodrigues, who previously worked as an officer in Hayward, where Bailey began working in 1984. "That gal is money, I kid you not. Jennie's what you want. You want someone on top of it, you want someone who can stay smooth no matter what's happening. Even-keeled. Nothing could get under her skin."
Hayward police Lt. Roger Keener said the role of the dispatcher -- top of the hierarchy when an emergency call comes in -- often goes unsung.
"The community relies on the cops to show up, and we rely on the dispatchers," he said. "It's a side of the job you don't see enough of portrayed anywhere. I couldn't be a dispatcher. "... It takes a different set of skills."
Bailey, 52, said she'll miss the excitement and camaraderie, and has no intention of packing away her scanner at home.
"I absolutely will listen -- there's always that pull," she said. "Sometimes after work I would think, 'I don't know if I can take another tragic or sad ending,' but then there's the pull of the excitement of it that brings you back."
By Eric Kurhi
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 12/20/2010 12:00:00 AM PST
Updated: 12/20/2010 11:19:48 AM PST
HAYWARD -- When it comes to the job of being an emergency dispatcher, said Jennie Bailey, it's definitely a case of nature, not nurture.
"I think only a rare percent of the population can do this job," said Bailey, who retired Saturday, 34 years to the day when she got her first dispatching job with Alameda County at age 18. "I don't think it's something you can learn -- it's something inside you."
It takes a tough skin and a sense of humor, she said. It takes attentiveness and the ability to rapidly communicate with alacrity and accuracy.
And more than anything, Bailey said, "it really comes down to common sense and keeping your head amid the chaos."
She said Luke Skywalker probably would have made a good dispatcher.
"It's like 'Star Wars,' " she said, "where (Skywalker) is flying the spaceship and everything is blowing up around him and he's telling himself, 'Stay on track "... Just stay on track.' "
For Bailey and her ilk, that means keeping cool in spite of what's on the other end of the line, be it panic, grief, rage or drug-addled confusion.
"People call here, and when they call, they're not calling to chat," Bailey said.
She said she'll never forget the bloodcurdling scream of a mother who just found her toddler drowned in a bathtub.
Or becoming a hostage negotiator when an intoxicated man called to say he had his mother at gunpoint and was going to kill them both.
"I was telling him to
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let her go, and he didn't want to, but I convinced him and he did," she said. "Then he shot himself. I heard the shot. "... (Hayward police) used the tape for a while for training purposes."
Bailey is often called a model dispatcher by the officers who have relied on her. Sometimes she's called more than that.
"Without reservation, she is the hottest dispatcher, and I don't mean it like that," said Alameda County sheriff's Sgt. Tom Rodrigues, who previously worked as an officer in Hayward, where Bailey began working in 1984. "That gal is money, I kid you not. Jennie's what you want. You want someone on top of it, you want someone who can stay smooth no matter what's happening. Even-keeled. Nothing could get under her skin."
Hayward police Lt. Roger Keener said the role of the dispatcher -- top of the hierarchy when an emergency call comes in -- often goes unsung.
"The community relies on the cops to show up, and we rely on the dispatchers," he said. "It's a side of the job you don't see enough of portrayed anywhere. I couldn't be a dispatcher. "... It takes a different set of skills."
Bailey, 52, said she'll miss the excitement and camaraderie, and has no intention of packing away her scanner at home.
"I absolutely will listen -- there's always that pull," she said. "Sometimes after work I would think, 'I don't know if I can take another tragic or sad ending,' but then there's the pull of the excitement of it that brings you back."
