DeKalb Police Department, how may I help you?

Those are the words heard when the phone rings at the DeKalb Police Department, located at 200 S. Fourth St.

With an average of 20 emergency phone calls and several hundred non-emergency service calls each day, these dispatchers are more than glorified telephone operators. They handle roughly 35,000 calls a year. That total does not include the personal phone calls routed through the dispatcher office or numerous calls for driving directions that the dispatchers get each day.

Carol Halfey, a senior dispatcher at the police department, has worked there for 11 years. Being a dispatcher is a complicated job, since you have to be skilled at multi-tasking in order to talk on the telephone, type on the computer and dispatch officers while still thinking ahead, she said.

Not only that, but you also must know who to call for what emergencies and be fluent with not only police work, but also knowledgeable about fire and medical department policies.

Downtime for dispatchers varies depending on shift. Brent Tillman, communications coordinator for the department, said that the busiest times for dispatchers are Friday and Saturday nights, especially Fridays from 4 to 7 p.m. when traffic jams back up Annie Glidden Road. Bar closing times on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights also show a heavy call log.

The slowest times, Tillman said, are between 3 and 5 a.m. on the weekdays.

During slow times, there always is paperwork to update, validate and file, as well as videos and a Web site that helps the dispatchers continuously train themselves. The downtime is unpredictable and sporadic, Halfey said.

Even at the slowest times of a shift, dispatchers need to be prepared to work as soon as the telephone rings.

“That’s when you go from zero to Mach IX instantly,” Halfey said.

As with any job, there are good and bad things about being a dispatcher. Although getting felony calls and medical emergencies are stressful to these workers, the worst part of the job is that they have to work holidays. Because laws require at least two dispatchers to be on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even senior dispatchers don’t get holidays off.

The best part of the job for Halfey is the fact that there is never a dull routine, since each call and each day is unlike the one before.

Halfey also said that success stories make her job worthwhile.

“It always feels good when you can give CPR over the phone and it’s successful,” Halfey said.

She recalls one Christmas Eve years ago when a family called in for assistance in locating a kitten. The parents had planned on giving their child the pet as a Christmas present the following morning, but the kitten had died unexpectedly. Halfey remembers spending about five hours calling all the shelters and pet stores they could find that still were open, trying to help this family find a new kitten for Christmas Day. Finally finding one, the family drove to Oregon at 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve to retrieve the new pet.

“We always try to reunite dogs and owners as much as possible,” Halfey said. “We reunite juveniles with parents a lot, too.”

Halfey and Tillman agree that being a dispatcher is not for everyone. Training and stress are integral parts of a job like this and they never go away. Schooling for a dispatching job is followed by four months of on-the-job training and a probationary period after that.

Future dispatchers need to determine how they deal personally with emergency situations, Halfey said. They need to be able to think clearly and not fall apart when things get rough.

“You have to be able to keep a cool head and handle all the bad things, because they will come,” Halfey said.

The Employee Relations Committee provides assistance to employees during stressful times and employees are encouraged to talk to a supervisor or other employees if they have trouble dealing with a situation.

This support system may be what leads to the longevity of the dispatchers, since the most senior dispatcher has been with the department for about 30 years.

“[The dispatchers] are a very dedicated group of people,” Tillman said.

And that dedication is shown with each answer of the phone.