Episode Details

Chris Barrett has spent ten years as a 911 dispatcher in New Jersey — answering the calls that come in at the worst moments of people's lives, deciding what help to send and how fast, talking callers through situations most people never have to face, and carrying the weight of everything those calls produce long after the shift ends. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, he shares what the training for that job actually involves, what the calls that still haunt him really looked like from the dispatcher who took them, how to de-escalate a caller in crisis, how dispatchers decide what kind of help to send, what the strangest calls he has ever received actually involved, and what ten years of sitting on the other end of the most desperate phone calls available does to a person's mental health.

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#911dispatcher #emergencyservices #truecrimecommunity #911

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Thank you to CASH APP for sponsoring this episode: 

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Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card. Discounts and promotions provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures.

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Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick:

https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en

https://ianbick.com/

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Timestamps:

00:00 Meet Chris Barrett
00:23 Early Life and Family
01:38 Adventurous Childhood
03:16 Career Aspirations
04:29 Why Firefighting?
05:23 Getting into Dispatch
07:08 The Dispatcher Test
08:03 Training and Trial by Fire
10:49 Common Newbie Mistakes
12:58 Warrant Checks Explained
14:20 Dispatch Center Setup
15:27 Anatomy of a 911 Call
17:44 Handling Silent Callers
19:43 Treating Everything as an Emergency
21:05 Prioritizing Calls
22:44 De-escalating Callers
27:03 Sponsor: Cash App
28:39 Calls About Suicide
33:56 Staying on the Line
34:50 When All Lines Are Busy
35:45 Busy Times and Call Volume
37:22 Most Common Calls
39:42 Regular and Mental Health Callers
41:03 911 vs Non-Emergency Lines
43:46 Focusing in a Noisy Room
45:19 Starting a Bad Day
47:56 Emotional Calls and Moving On
52:04 Calls Per Shift
53:12 Quiet Moments
55:27 Handling Car Accidents
01:02:04 Hypervigilance After Work
01:03:34 Sirens Off-Duty
01:05:03 Bonds with Officers
01:09:59 Mental Health Resources
01:11:43 Changes in Dispatching
01:19:01 Civilian vs Officer Dispatchers
01:20:43 Media Portrayals
01:24:42 Spotting Inconsistencies
01:27:26 Hardest Calls
01:32:42 Strangest Calls
01:37:28 Alarms and Tech
01:40:41 AI in Dispatch
01:42:01 Career Longevity
01:43:43 Career Lessons

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