Dispatcher-fired-police-officer-resigns-174012929.htm. Here’s another one of those stories where they don’t give enough information. A person would be hard pressed to make an informed judgment as to what an appropriate out come should be. I have to rely on past experience to conclude the Police Chief may have over reacted. All I can do is relate a similar experience and the result. You decide.

This happened just prior to my joining the police department so we are talking a long time ago. The police department had just relocated to a brand new state of the art building. After hours, the building was placed on lock down and the dispatcher controlled all access to the building. She had to “buzz you in.” The building was impervious to outside assault. On midnight shift it wasn’t unusual for the dispatcher to be alone in the building for long period of time.

Joseph Wambaugh coined the phrase, “Legend in Your Own Time”. In “Choirboys” parlance one achieved this status by committing and surviving an act so extreme that it was the topic of discussion for some time afterwards. This act could be one of bravery, stupidity, or defiance. All of the individuals involved in the event I describe received “Legend In Their Own Time” status.

On this particular night the female dispatcher and one of two patrolmen on duty were safely ensconced in the bowels of the police station. Both were single and over twenty-one. In the retelling of the story a number of euphemisms are used. So specifics as to who did what to whom is a little fuzzy. But euphemisms aside, all all parties involved agree to the following flatly stated facts. Panties on the floor, skirt hiked up, partially seated on the brand new state of the art radio console capable of broadcasting on four frequencies, lacking gun belt and heavy petting.

The patrol commander was known to roam the city at all hours. Sometimes he would announce over the radio that he was out and about. Most often an officer would look up from writing a traffic ticket or scan the area upon approaching his patrol car after answering a call and there the Commander was, like a specter hovering on the edge of reality. Did I say the police building was impervious to assault? Not strictly true, all of the sophisticated defenses were useless against the one who held a key.

The patrol commander possessed just such a key, which he used to walk in the back door unannounced. The dispatch office is located at the juncture of two internal hallways. It is a glassed in affair so that the dispatcher can monitor passing movement. It has a communicating door which was supposed to be locked but kept open for convenience. This means that the clear unobstructed afforded dispatch was available to those glancing into dispatch.  I have already described the view available to the patrol commander.

His response made him; “Legend in Your Own Time” The patrol commander hung his head into dispatch and almost without breaking stride said, “When you get done there… see me,” and then he was off to his office.

The offending officer and dispatcher were both given three day suspensions, he, for being out of uniform and her for inappropriate use of city equipment. You just don’t fire dispatchers that can multitask. They both received “Legend in Your Own Time” accolades for surviving the encounter, breaking the new building in right  and for lamely claiming they were both entitled to a coffee breaks but didn’t like coffee.