Once upon a time ...
Out of college, I was a #Police dispatcher for the City of #Irvine CA.
I found some old cassette tapes of pursuits I called back in 1980. (43 years ago!) I've digitized them and upload the video to YouTube.
I call all except the third one, which was on the Orange County "Red" mutual aid channel Control One.
This was something like six careers ago, but those seven years gave me lots of life skills that continue to this day.
@WordsmithFL I always thought that would be an awfully hard job. Your adrenalin has got to be pumping, but you’re stuck there being the calm voice of reason, all the while your lizard brain is telling you to run!! The stress has got to be a killer. Thanks for your service! ❤️
@Superstitionsee Thank you ... I learned a trick from a mentor at another agency -- the more stressful the event, the more important it is for the dispatcher to use a calm detached voice. You're in charge, you're in control, project that and everyone else will stay calm.
You'll hear me in several of the pursuits asking if they want to borrow another agency's helicopter. In the stress of the moment, they tend not to think about options. Sometimes I set up perimeters because no one else did.
@Superstitionsee Tomorrow I'm going to digitize an incident where a Lion Country Safari elephant killed its handler and fled the park headed for the freeway. It was a major clusterf*ck. Eventually she calmed down and another handler led her back to the park, but we had to shut down three freeways on a Sunday. Too much fun.