‘The First Responder You Never See:‘ Pocatello 911 Dispatcher Highlights Demands, Rewards of Life on the Line

POCATELLO, IDAHO (KIFI) — When someone in Bannock County dials 911, the first person they talk to isn’t a police officer, firefighter, or paramedic. It’s a dispatcher like April Neal, who has spent nearly a decade on the other end of the line.

Neal, a 911 dispatcher for the Pocatello Police Department, says one of the biggest misconceptions about her job is that dispatchers are “just secretaries.”

“A lot of people think that we're just secretaries, but we multitask constantly,” Neal said. “We are taking calls. We are dispatching out medical for the entire county of Bannock County, and we also dispatch police for the city of Pocatello. We are constantly doing something and entering paperwork into the NCIC database.”

Neal has been a dispatcher for 10 years. She works 12-hour day shifts, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., helping manage everything from life‑threatening emergencies to parking problems and utility questions.

“We deal with everything under the sun," Neal said.

On a typical weekday, Neal estimates she and her fellow dispatchers handle around 100 calls each.

Not every call is a true emergency. Some are transfers to records or detectives. Others are for city services, like paying a utility bill. But all of them must be answered and routed correctly, while genuine emergencies are entered into the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system and prioritized in real time.

The center is staffed with a minimum of three dispatchers per shift — one for police, one for 911/medical, and one for the non-emergency line. That’s the minimum, Neal says, not necessarily the ideal.

“We definitely need more dispatchers,” she said. “If a big incident occurs, then it's really difficult when there are only two call takers on the floor. The more dispatchers, the easier the incident can complete itself.”

During fire season, dispatchers often receive a flood of calls about the same incident.

“We'll answer the phone, ‘911, are you calling about the West Bench fire?’” she said. “If they don't have any new information and nobody is hurt, we tell them we have help on the way and move to the next call so we can get to someone who might be in dire straits.”

Neal says dispatchers are frequently exposed to callers’ worst moments, and that can take a toll.

She keeps the details of the most traumatic calls private out of concern for victims and their families, but says some still stay with her.

To cope, Neal focuses on separating work from home.

“One of the things I do is I go home, and I go for a walk if it's been an extremely stressful day,” Neal said. “I have other outside activities that I do, I still pitch softballs, or I officiate volleyball. It’s separate from what I do day in and day out, to help realize that there are good people, there are good things out in the world.”

Becoming a dispatcher in Pocatello is not a simple process. Neal says training takes about 27 weeks, depending on how quickly a trainee progresses.

"Roughly, it can you can go quicker or longer, just depends on how you are accelerating with the program." Neal said, "So we are trained with the computer system, with paperwork, and then we're trained in call taking EMD, which is emergency medical dispatch, which we are the only Police Department in Idaho that is certified. And then we're trained in the police. Police is the hardest discipline, because, obviously, officers are officer safety is the biggest issue, and making sure that they're safe and knowing where their locations are and making sure we check on them constantly and do whatever quests they they need us to do to complete the investigation.

“We have to ask certain questions, and it depends on what the chief complaint is,” Neal said. “We ask those specific questions to make sure we get the correct amount of units to the person in trouble.”

Often, Neal never meets the people whose lives she may have helped save, but she hears about outcomes through officers and paramedics.

“I do hear feedback … that we saved them or they were able to be transported to the hospital where they received the help they needed and survived their injuries,” she said. “That’s what keeps me coming back to the job. I love helping people.”

From Neal’s perspective, the most important thing people can know before they dial 911 is their location.

“That is the first and foremost question that a dispatcher will ask you,” Neal said. “Just answer the questions that the dispatcher asks you directly. We are getting help there. It's not delaying.”

Neal says she tries to treat every caller as if she were speaking to a friend or a family member.

“That gives me the drive to come to my job every single day,” she said. “I just want to make sure that I get help to the public the best that I can, and to make sure all my officers go home.”

As communities across the nation mark National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, Neal wants people to remember the unseen voices who answer the phone when someone dials 911.

“Dispatchers, any emergency telecommunication officers, they are the first responders, and they do not get enough credit,” Neal said. “If anybody's looking for a career and likes to help serve their community, help people, then a 911 dispatcher is a good career for someone to apply for.”

She also had a message for her colleagues across Idaho and the country.

“I just want to say thank you to all the 911 dispatchers out there,” Neal said. “The police department and every agency couldn't do what they do without serving the public the way that dispatchers do. They’re amazing.”