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Those fend for yourself places should have atleast one armed P.O.
in the command center at all times. Most places do now a days. That is good common since. Also takes out a lot of liability and some stress off the dispatcher. Dispatching is no doubt a very stressful job. I was one and moved on to P.O. and worked k-9 and now retired and happy. Your dept. needs a change if you all feel unsafe in your own building. Look into it! Fraternally
Throw twinkies at them...
I will play devil's advocate on this one. You say that dispatcher's should be armed with guns. What is the reason behind that ? I don't know where you are dispatching from but we are supposed to be in a secure area of the Police Department. Away from the general public. Who do you think is going to get at us ? Arming dispatcher's would be nothing less than stupid. I don't know where you work but I would feel terrified knowing that one or more of my co-workers were armed. God forbid I have to ask the questions that they should have asked and they cop an attitude at me and fire off a couple of rounds at me. Not that I am worried about if any of them could hit me but just think about what a bullet could do to a CAD system. How would you explain that one to IAD ! With that being said, I do think that there should be somebody in the building armed at all times. Take a look at the recent events in Plantation. An armed person chasing his girlfriend and shoots her in the parking lot of the Police Department. I doubt having an armed dispatch center would have made any difference to it, but still the days of a Police Department being a safe haven are gone. We are more like an Outpost in the wild. Surrounded by hordes of people that are willing to kill. Arm the dispatchers HELL NO ! Keep the guns in the hands of those that are trained to use them, the officers. We keep them safe and they will keep us safe.
Well they don't, and knowing the place I left they never will. They could care less about the safety of their non-sworn. It's a moot point now anyhow, as the gal that filled my slot sleeps on duty most of the time. Ay carumba mi hermana! (People do talk...)Quote:
Originally Posted by Anonymous
1st off... I've read a lot of the replies to this subject and could not agree with thinking that this is not a good idea.... There are a lot of dispatchers that are qualified to carry and are trained to shoot... I'm with the Massachusetts State Police and I'm a dispatcher. I see nothing wrong with carrying at work and I carrying outside the work place, anyhow. Whats the difference? My feelings are you have a LTC/Concealed Weapon Carry Permit, then I see nothing wrong with the Dispatchers carrying, lawfully. However, if you can not qualify for a gun permit then you should not be in the position of being a dispatcher.
The notion of a dispatcher going "postal" is not different than that same person going "postal" anywhere!
Dispatchers work in an enclosed office with lots of stress. I have seen a lot of quarrels between dispatchers some get really hot and we have to separate them. Imagine having them carry guns? OMG there will be a shoot out. Bang bang bang shots fired! Where? Inside communications center!
This makes as much sense as teachers carrying guns. But if you want this to happen, tell one of them dumb ass politicians who voted fo pass that armed teacher law maybe they will make it a law.