April 16, 2009
From TheKCGuy
Well, it was bound to happen. Chief Jordan got wind of my weekly Dispatches from the Prairie Village Citizen Police Academy and tracked me down. He didn't order me immediately taken into custody and interrogated under a bare light bulb in a hot, smoky room in the back of the station, so I guess I'm in the clear on this one. This week, class continued with two presentations from people who work in the station.
First, Lorra the keeper of the records (I presume that's her official title), came in to tell us a bit about how she does her job keeping track of the mountain of paperwork that gets produced. She described all kinds of daily activity logs, arrest forms, incident forms, accident forms, and countless other forms that contribute to the eleventy-zillion pieces of paper that the department produces each day. She naturally knows where each one is at all times. It's incredible.
Then Naomi, one of the dispatchers, spent some time with us. As a bit of a scanner junkie, I was interested to learn a bit about the equipment that they use and how this part of the department works. I was a bit surprised to hear that MARC was involved in helping them with their phone system, I guess to help ensure that the many municipalities in the metro area can communicate a little better. That organization does more than I thought. They seem to have their fingers in everything. We got a little more detailed tour of the dispatchers room where they answer 911 and other emergency calls and work the radios to talk to the officers. They have an impressive display of computers, phones, and radios in there. I was a little jealous. Finally, we got to listen to recordings of a few calls that were handled in the area in the past. The calmness and focus that the dispatchers and other officials demonstrated during these emotionally disturbing calls was impressive.
If you enjoyed this report from class this week, be sure to check out the reports from the previous classes listed on the Citizen Police Academy page. Next week we cover investigations. Stay tuned for details from that.
