911 dispatch is a stressful, high stakes job that demands a lot of responsibility.

“We can go from, ‘Somebody stole my trash can’ to, ‘My baby’s not breathing’ in a matter of seconds,” Durango La Plata Emergency Communications Center Director Zeta Fail said.

And the 911 dispatch center wants to hear from residents how its performance is stacking up.

The center is accepting public comments in its pursuit of an accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.

CALEA is a credentialing agency where law enforcement can voluntarily seek accreditation from.

Fail said on Tuesday CALEA reviews agencies based on 208 standards across seven categories or chapters. Those categories are “administrative, jurisdictional, the human resource function, training, recruiting, operations and unusual occurrences,” she said.

She also said independent assessors will begin reviewing the 911 dispatch center’s files for consideration for accreditation in the coming weeks. In April, two on-site assessors will record observations and conduct interviews with the dispatch center’s client agencies.

Resident feedback could contribute to the accreditation process, but the emergency dispatch center wants to know how it’s doing anyway, Fail said.

“We’re very serious about providing the best service possible,” she said.

She said dispatchers provide live saving feedback every day and the work amounts to much more than being “a switchboard operator.”

“We have to leverage all sorts of mapping and resource files and work with our public safety partners – fire, police, emergency management, search and rescue. It’s a very demanding job,” she said.

Every month, the dispatch center sends out a survey that has a 40% response rate. One staff member personally calls respondents to hear from them directly, which helps the survey be successful, Fail said.

Sometimes, people ask why the center asks the questions it does when responding to emergency calls. Fail said residents calling about an active emergency don’t always understand how 911 dispatch questions are relevant. But a dispatcher’s goal is to get as much information about an emergency as possible to relay to other first responders.

Police officers need information about a suspect, such as whether they are armed or the direction they’re going. Firefighters and EMS first responders need answers to certain medical questions to provide the right treatment.

“A lot of times, people will feel like we’re wasting time sending help by asking questions,” she said. “And our staff tells people, ‘This is not delaying the response. They’re coming as quickly as they possibly can, and we need this information for them.’”

Other times, residents don't feel like they received the attention they needed. Fail said their feedback can help dispatchers improve their lines of questioning.

“Our (operations) manager pulls those calls and reviews them and then sits down with the employee and we talk about ways we can improve,” she said. “ … It might just be a simple change on our end that helps the citizen understand better.”

Dispatchers receive extensive training for a variety of situations. Fail said even if a specific, highly critical emergency occurs only once in a great while, the 911 dispatch center has guides ready to help dispatchers respond to that call.

To help dispatchers deal with the stress of the job, the 911 dispatch center has implemented a resiliency program to ensure staff get adequate time off and have resources available to work through trauma and stress acquired by responding to harrowing calls.

“It’s a unique job and we’re always looking for that special person that likes to help people and has the skill and ability that we need to process a lot of information at one time,” Fail said.

The 911 dispatch center currently has 12 fully trained staff, excluding administration, and it’s looking to hire six more people, she said.

“We’ve got some really good people that care about the community,” she said. “They have a desire to serve the community. And they are true first responders, because they’re the first person on the phone, they’re the first person on the scene, on the phone. Their job is so important to gather all of that information.”

The online public feedback form can be accessed online at calea.org.

cburney@durangoherald.com