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More 911 operators being recruited

The click on the other end of the 911 call said it all for Cathy Teer.Just two years into her job as a telecommunications officer with emergency services at a Northern Alberta community in 1980,

The click on the other end of the 911 call said it all for Cathy Teer.

Just two years into her job as a telecommunications officer with emergency services at a Northern Alberta community in 1980, Teer took a call from a man threatening to commit suicide.

“When we get a suicide call, we’re trained to stay on the line with them,” Teer said Tuesday at her office in the Red Deer Rural RCMP detachment.

Dispatchers have the option of staying on line with the caller or putting them through to a distress centre, Teer said.

“If it’s an active one, we will stay on the line and dispatch a (Mountie).”

“We need to know where they are, if it’s in a room or outside. Our question is: How do you plan to do this?”

She remembers asking a man how he planned to kill himself.

“He cocked the gun in my ear and asked did I hear that?”

Teer said her heart started fluttering but she remained calm and determined the man’s location to alert a responding Mountie.

In such cases, extreme caution is used because of the presence of a gun.

The caller’s attempt was averted and he was taken for help.

Teer said her two main objectives are for the safety of the RCMP officer and the caller.

After 32 years on the job in a number of Alberta centres, Teer is now a support advisor with the Southern Alberta Operational Communications Centre based in Red Deer.

The centre serves 63 RCMP detachments in Alberta, to the Montana and B.C. borders, excluding the City of Calgary.

The Central and Southern Alberta Sheriffs departments are also under the dispatcher’s watch.

The centre is on a recruiting drive this month in Edmonton and Red Deer for new dispatchers.

The centres operate round the clock and in Red Deer about 80 members provide a critical service within the RCMP.

The dispatchers are the frontline of all 911 calls. The initial call comes into the Red Deer Emergency Services dispatchers, who then ask the caller if it’s for fire, police or ambulance. The caller is then transferred to the appropriate agency.

Calls for fire and ambulance assistance are instantly forwarded to the fire department, which in Red Deer’s case also handles ambulance calls for many Central Alberta points.

The Red Deer centre will remain operating out of the 43rd Avenue and 55th Street location despite the relocation of the main RCMP rural body to a new detachment in Blackfalds.

The federal drug section and identification section will also remain in Red Deer.

Teer said dispatcher candidates must be at least 19 years old but they have applicants over 50. They must be Canadian citizens, of good character, proficient in English, able to type 40 words per minute and hold a high school diploma or equivalent.

Candidates must also have knowledge of Windows-based computer applications and meet medical standards.

Trainees spend about nine months learning the trade and the starting wage is around $25 an hour. Workers are employed by the federal government with a good benefits package, Teer said.

New dispatchers take seven weeks of classroom work, followed by several months being paired with an experience operator on the job.

“People need to be able to multitask because they can work on three computers at once,” she said.

“Not everyone is cut out for this job. It can be pretty wearing on a person,” said Teer, who raised three children while working all types of shifts.

“If it’s just a job for you, then you’ll put about five years in. If it’s a career, then you’re 30 plus.”

Counselling help is available for dispatchers who deal with stressful calls. And there is a team in place to assist if necessary, she added.

She said the main drawback of the job is not knowing the outcome of many calls.

Unless the responding officer is located near Red Deer, dispatchers often don’t learn the outcome of a case.

People interested in the job can call 1-877-726-7472 or visit www. rcmpcareers.ca.

jwilson@www.reddeeradvocate.com