As the first first responder, 911 dispatchers at the Versailles Police Department (VPD) have to remain calm on what can often be someone’s worst day.
That worst day could be a family member dying or someone getting into their first car accident, dispatcher Gabby Clover says. And no matter what a 911 caller needs – an ambulance, police officers or firefighters – “you have to be prepared for it all,” she says.
Being able to communicate with a caller while talking to the first responders being dispatched requires what dispatchers call “our radio ear,” says dispatcher Haley Lynn.
They can hear everything – simultaneously – even what’s unsaid.
VPD Chief Rob Young describes the 911 dispatchers as being critical in the first responder community. “They literally are that first contact that our public has when they’re in need of assistance, whether that be police, fire or EMS,” he says.
As the bridge between a first responder and the person in need of help, 911 dispatchers are relied upon to give information to first responders while getting services to the community.
Clover and Lynn are shift partners, so they regularly work in tandem during high-risk emergencies. “And as I’m getting information (from the caller),” explains Clover, “she’s giving it out to the officers so they are as prepared as they can be going into that situation…”
Lynn says providing officers with all the information they’ll need helps to ensure “they’re going to go home at the end of the day to their wives, to their families, and return to shift the next day.”
One of the ways for dispatchers to process a hard call is by talking to each other – leaning on each other because they understand what they go through during their 12-hour shifts.
“… If we have a bad call, we’ll debrief,” says Clover. “We’ll take a couple of minutes and talk it out.” And sometimes, depending on the situation, “we’ll ask the officers to come up and sit and talk to us about it, and share their experience from what they saw – actually in the moment – versus what we’ve heard. That way it kind of gives a sense of closure, because with dispatching a lot of times you don’t always get closure.”
Diana Leininger, who has been executive director of the 911 department at VPD since May 2025 and a dispatcher for more than 20 years, says debriefings are also an opportunity to discuss “what I could do better next time – even when you do everything that you’re supposed to do.” That helps prepare them for the next injury accident, heart attack or other emergency.
“You learn something from everyone that you work with,” says Lucita Morales, who became a dispatcher a little more than a year ago. Other dispatchers have taught her to stay patient and to really listen to a caller, and how you talk to them matters too.
When the person calling 911 gets really loud, Leininger says, “We tend to get real quiet.” She says her voice becomes very monotone because that helps her stay calm when emotions are high.
When dispatchers are talking to a caller, Leininger says, “Our goal is (to get) as much information as quick as possible.”
“How do we know who to send? We’ve got to ask questions,” she adds, so we can “get a snapshot of what the situation is.”
Because a dispatcher is on the phone and “removed from the hysterics of what’s on scene,” Lynn says, “… You can kind of put the puzzle pieces together as you’re asking questions.”
Since becoming director, Leininger says she has worked hard to nurture more consistent working relationships with first responders at other agencies to open lines of communication.
Ensuring “all of the emergency services have what they need is important to me because although we’re housed in the police department, we’re not just police dispatchers. We’re a Central Dispatch, so our goal is to make sure everybody gets home safe…,” she says.
Leininger was working when VPD Officer Scott Bobbitt was struck by a vehicle and injured on Sept. 23 while directing traffic at Southside Elementary School. She acknowledges emotions are heightened in those situations, but the goal is the same: get everybody home safe and sound – whether that’s a first responder or a citizen.
“… On a rough day,” says Leininger, “I might drive home in silence. Just let it decompress. Take a moment for myself.”
She says her family usually knows when she’s had a tough day. If she does, they know to leave her alone for a while.
Dispatchers have coping mechanisms too. “I like to color. I like to watch my daughter play softball,” says Leininger.
“We all have our things that we do to decompress.”
A couch behind their workspace offers a comfy spot for the dispatchers to relax in the aftermath of a tough call.
They have to be ready to answer the next call, so “they need somewhere – not far away – where they can decompress and relax for half a minute to regain their composure,” Young says.
Being the caregiver for her younger brother, who is autistic and “my world,” made Lynn want to help other people when he didn’t need her as much.
Morales did women’s hair and nails before she became a dispatcher. Being bilingual is an opportunity for her to help people, like a Spanish-speaking caller who appreciated her for remaining calm while giving them all the information they needed, which Morales says, “builds your confidence that you’re doing the right thing.”
Clover, who has been a dispatcher for five years and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology, also wanted to help people. She used skills learned in a specialized training on crisis and hostage negotiations to help someone who was suicidal. The training gave her tools to “empathize with the person – not sympathize with them,” she says.
Leininger enjoys working in Versailles, she says, “because I like knowing who I’m talking to on the radio.” Often, she knows who an officer is when she hears their voice – not when she hears their unit number.
By the time someone has been doing this job for a year, “the dispatcher has probably encountered the majority of the type of calls that they’re going to get on a regular basis,” Leininger says, before emphasizing no two calls are ever the same.
So being able to multi-task is a critical skill for dispatchers who are often relaying information and communicating with more than one first responder, says Young, before adding, “they have to be at their best when others are at their worst.”
Lynn, who’s been a dispatcher for nearly seven years, says, “We’re supposed to be that calm in the chaos.”