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August, 2007 PSAP Profile – Sugar Land Department  The City of Sugar Land is one of the fastest growing cities in the GHC 9-1-1 territory with a population of 76,000. The police department answers approximately 20,000 – 23,000 emergency and nonemergnecy calls per month. Currently, there are 15 dispatchers and shift supervisors. At full staff there would be 19. The minimum staffing per shift is one call taker, one fire dispatcher police dispatcher. Sugar Land is very proud of their newly revised training program that includes two weeks of training in a classroom setting prior to the trainees even taking their first phone call. This city has also utilized the Neighborhood Early Warning System (NEWS) in the past for shelter-in-place and evacuation notices to their community. The police, fire and city officials were recently trained on the new process on how to launch a NEWS event. Supervisor Profile: Shannon Price Shannon Price, the 9-1-1 Coordinator for Sugar Land has worked in municipal government for 16 years and 10 of those years she has worked in emergency communications. She has worked as a supervisor for three years. Ms. Price believes that working under the headset before helps her to have insight into what is important to a dispatcher. “I get the most satisfaction from my job when I know that I have made a positive difference for the dispatchers, even if it’s just one dispatcher at a time,” she said. Most memorable 9-1-1 call: “Unfortunately the call that sticks out in my mind was when a conveniences store clerk called me after he had been robbed and stabbed am the 18-year old boy died while he was on the phone with me,” said Price. She says that the hardest calls to answer are the ones from hysterical mothers who have a sick or injured child because of the empathy she has for the callers. When asked about her least favorite part of the job, Price replies that it is difficult to find the time to work during night shift hours so she can be available for the dispatchers on that shift also. Ms. Price realizes that stress is inherent to emergency communications. To help her stress, she spends time with her husband and kids at home. Price’s advice to telecommunicators and dispatchers is to “always own up to your mistakes and learn form them. Your peers and the field unit will respect you for it, and it will make you a better dispatcher.” |