911 Dispatcher: This Career is Not 'Shake and Bake'

Many men and women wake up each and every morning to carry out an oath they took to serve and protect the public, including police officers, firefighters, medical professionals and military personnel. Bridgeport resident Shemaine Bennett carries out this same oath as well, but she doesn’t particularly fit into any of these categories — she is a 911 dispatcher.

Since 1995, 37-year-old Bennett has been working for the dispatch center in Stamford, which handles over 65,000 calls for police, fire and EMT assistance annually. In fact, on the night that Officer Richard Gasparino while on a drug raid last fall, Bennett was on duty and took the call.

“At the time, I was working on the EMS side and the whole experience really made me feel connected to my co-workers,” she told Patch. “To be able to dispatch the appropriate units that got him to the hospital in the least amount of time possible was a big relief.”

While most people get time to process the shock of a situation like Gasparino’s, 911 dispatchers don’t have that comfort. “We work as a team and we’re family,” she said. “Working here, you develop close relationships with the other dispatchers, the officers and firefighters. You know how they talk and how they think. And [Gasparino] has a wife and kids, so you immediately start to think of them. But then soon after, I had to say to myself, ‘He’s okay’ and then it was back to work.”

According to Bennett, her career began with a desire to work in public service, but she wasn’t interested in working on an ambulance as an EMT. So after hearing about an available position as a dispatcher, she applied to received training. Stamford’s combined calling center means that trainees are instructed in three separate areas: police, fire and EMS.

“[Dispatchers in Stamford] rotate through each area on a daily basis,” she said. “One day you could be on the phones, while the next day you could be on the police radios. The next day, you could be assigned to fire dispatch and so on.”

Over 15 years after becoming a dispatcher, Bennett is now training others and said that the job can get tedious. “I don’t think a lot of people realize that being a dispatcher is not just something you learn your first day and then you’re ready to go,” she said. “You have to go through a program where you are monitored, scored and evaluated everyday. It’s definitely not ‘shake and bake.’ And now as a trainer, I have to feel confident in the person that I’m training because they represent me now.”

To be prepared for a career as a 911 dispatcher, applicants must be able to pay attention to detail, multitask well and adapt to different situations, Bennett said. “You have to learn how to compartmentalize pretty quickly,” she said. “You have to be able to get on the phone, help the person as efficiently as you can and then move on to the next call because we don’t have enough personnel to get stuck on one call.”

And as a wife and mother of two girls, ages 12 and 15, sometimes Bennett’s family life has to take a backseat to her work life. “Sometimes you may be there on a 16-hour shift instead of an 8-hour shift, which means that you have to miss your picnic or movie time,” she said. “But that’s a part of the job.”

Being a dispatcher also means that some work shifts don’t end with good news, like the night Gasparino was shot. “We get a lot of calls during the summer that involve kids,” she said. “And anytime we learn that we’ve lost a kid, it can get very emotional because I’m a mom and I can relate. But, when a child is sick and we’re able to get there in time or they’re lost and then found, that is so gratifying.”

Despite the ups and downs of the job, Bennett said that she believes that she is living out her true calling. “I am a minister of the gospel and I believe that as a part of that ministry, I was place here for a purpose,” she said. “I know some people don’t want me to hear me talk about God, but he has called me to be here and that’s why I am still here. I’ve been doing this for a very long time and I still find fulfillment in it. I help diffuse situations between mothers and daughters. I feel like it’s a part of who I’m supposed to be.”