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Dispatch |
Welcome to the
communications center . . . the hub of the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office. The
communications center, when fully staffed, consists of seven dispatchers and one
senior dispatcher who supervises the center.
The center is staff 24-hours per day, seven days per week. The dispatchers work
rotating 12-hour shifts. With the rotating days on and off, the dispatchers
will get a full weekend off, every other weekend. There are usually one or two
dispatchers on duty at any time.
The communications center is responsible for answering seven 911 emergency
telephone lines; two 7-digit back up emergency telephone lines, 10 business
telephone lines, and several other inter-department telephone lines. Dispatch
is responsible for answering all telephone lines that come into the department
and must distribute these calls to the proper division. Cellular 911 calls are
currently answered by the California Highway Patrol Dispatch and must be
transferred by them to the appropriate agency. Tehama County is in the process
of transferring responsibility and will be receiving the cellular 911 calls for
the county in the near future. The communications center dispatches for Tehama
County only. The cities of Red Bluff and Corning have their own dispatch
centers.
The dispatchers are responsible for keeping track of all on-duty patrol
deputies, detectives, sergeants, and other miscellaneous personnel who are
on-duty. The dispatchers must also monitor Red Bluff Police Department, Corning
Police Department, CAL Fire, and the California Highway Patrol to make sure they
are aware of an incident that may carry over into the county or assist those
agencies if needed. This includes monitoring the primary and secondary radio
channels and 11 other monitored channels used by other agencies. The
dispatchers use a CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) system for tracking the units
and calls for services. When a call for service is received, dispatch must
enter the call in the computer and radio the appropriate deputy to respond to
the incident. The dispatcher must check everyone involved in the call and make
sure there are no alerts or dangers to the officers responding.
Dispatchers are also responsible for daily paperwork at the Tehama County
Sheriff’s Office. Dispatchers enter and track countywide warrants, which
includes entering warrants into the computers and state warrant systems,
abstracting them to other counties or agencies when the person is arrested, and
updating the warrants to show when they were served, recalled, or purged.
Dispatchers run driver’s license queries, criminal history checks, and wanted
person checks for the patrol units, other agencies, and for report purposes.
Dispatchers will enter restraining orders into the computer system and keep
track of the involved paperwork for the county. Dispatchers are also responsible
for running paperwork for the county. Dispatchers are responsible for running
paperwork for every intake into the Tehama County Jail, making sure each person
has been booked completely, including driver’s license checks, wanted persons
checks and criminal history.
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Pictured L-R: Dispatcher Ashley Arnott, Dispatcher Barbara Jo Fritz,
Dispatcher Wilma Gillett, Dispatcher Zack DeRego, |
