By Sara Castellanos, The Aurora Sentinel
Original publication date: April 7, 2011

Aurora, Colo. — Clayton Velarde might never see the people on the other end of the line, or know what happens to them when the call ends.

But every day, he bears the responsibility of helping the strangers that dial 911.

At the moment, he’s trying to console a woman suffering severe abdominal pains.

His words carry through the phone with the professionalism of a customer service representative, the credence of a doctor, and the kindness of a friend.

He asks what her pain level is on a scale from one to 10.

She answers, with a soft and tear-stricken voice, that it’s a 10.

“I just want you to know I have help on the way,” Velarde tells her for the second time.

His fingers type feverishly as he logs every piece of information into the appropriate software, writing in a shorthand almost undecipherable to an onlooker.

He maps her coordinates and authorizes a dispatcher to send an ambulance to her house while being keenly aware of what’s happening on all six computers at his workstation.

The former hotel worker also flips through the protocol outlined in a dense and tattered rule-book that outlines what questions to ask a caller who’s suffering from abdominal pains.

“I just don’t feel very well,” the woman says.

Velarde advises her not to move, and to stay on the line until the medical professionals are in her house.

The call lasts six minutes, and when the ambulance arrives, it ends.

He and the 80 “telecommunicators” at Aurora’s 9-1-1 Call Center were recently recognized nationally for their work.

The call center on March 29 was named the “2010 Outstanding 9-1-1 Call Center” by a national institute, out of more than 8,000 centers in the country.

From an observer’s perspective, it’s not hard to understand why they received the accolade.

Despite the moderately high burnout rate — the call center has a 15-percent turnover rate, compared to the average turnover rate for a regular city employee of about 6 percent — the employees are fiercely dedicated.

“This is one of the few jobs where it matters whether you show up to work,” said Benita Gonzales, a telecommunicator specialist who has been answering 911 calls for a rare 13 years. “You have to be present in the here and now.”

Throughout her career, Gonzales has taken calls ranging from the bizarre to the devastating.

Between the time of the call and the arrival of a medical professional or a policeman, she has negotiated with suicidal parties, helped locate a diabetic who was lost, and comforted a child who was hiding under a desk, fearing for his life after his father shot his mother.

She’s taken calls about alien spaceship sightings, and commiserated with a 96-year-old man after the death of his high school sweetheart to whom he was married for 80 years.

“Sometimes our job is just sitting with somebody on the phone until we can have somebody there to help them,” she said. “Sometimes it’s literally very active — I’m telling you how to give CPR, how to stop arterial bleeding, how to deliver a baby, what to do with the three teeth that are knocked out.”

When employees are prank called or asked to give a football game score, they are required to remain professional and tell the caller that emergencies are their only priority.

The heinous calls are the toughest to deal with, and the reason why the career of a 9-1-1 call taker lasts about five years, according to the national average, Gonzales said.

Calls about Sudden Infant Death syndrome, murders and hostage situations can result in emotional problems, according to psychologists.

For that reason, a peer-support program was implemented two years ago.

Last year, over 600 contacts, or two contacts per day, were made from peer-to-peer about various situations.

When a call taker receives an unsettling phone call, psychologists refer to it as “auditory vicarious traumatization.”

“They are traumatized by what they hear,” said John Nicoletti, a police psychologist based in Lakewood who contracts with the Aurora Police Department.

One of the biggest problems he encounters with his clients is the lack of closure they have after most calls.

“They never quite know how something finishes,” Nicoletti said. “Did the person die? Did the officer die? Was there a shooting? It’s hard to get closure.”

It’s important for employees at the 9-1-1 Call Center to brace themselves before they are hired and vent when they need to.

“If you leave it inside, it’s going to haunt you,” Nicoletti said.

To offset the seriousness of their jobs and the fact that they aren’t allowed to leave their posts without permission — not even for a bathroom break — call takers are equipped with the finest, high-tech workspace.

Desks move up and down, computers can be utilized with the touch of a finger, dispatches can be made using a foot pedal, and fans and heaters are requisite.

Employees can sit on exercise balls, comfy chairs and even work standing up.

When it’s not busy, normally between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., they’re allowed to knit, crochet, eat and read.

But during the hectic shifts, which are usually Tuesdays after 5 p.m. and weekends, being able to multitask is the most important part of a call taker’s job.

And it’s not easy.

With at least six computers, two keyboards, constant monitoring of police, fire and ambulance personnel, logging, researching and investigating all while on a call, each employee at the call center has their hands full.

“It’s kind of like trying to sing opera while walking backwards on a high wire in another language,” Gonzales said.

The advent of new technology has made it even more busy in the office, and it’s both a boon and a detriment for telecommunicators.

For example, with new Global Positioning System technology acquired in 2001, dispatchers and call takers can track all police cars and fire trucks in the city as well as their speeds.

The maps are so detailed that they can plot where the city’s fire hydrants are.

That makes the process of sending out a patrol car or fire truck more efficient.

“Our accuracy as far as sending the closest units out is so much better because we can see where they are at all times,” said Jeannette Price, lead telecommunicator. “We’re not just hoping they are in the area.”

The popularity of cell phones has been a double-edged sword for call takers.

About 80 percent of the 400,000 calls received each year come from cell phones, about 2 percent are computer calls and the rest are calls from land-lines.

The benefit of cell phones is that people can place a call as soon as an event, like a car accident, happens.

But dialing 9-1-1 from a cell phone has also made it harder to place the caller’s exact location.

“The public’s perception that when you dial 9-1-1 we can always tell where they’re at is not true,” said Michael Bedwell, the city’s police and fire dispatch center manager. “A lot of times the vendors don’t provide that technology for us or the person has an older cell phone.”

Sometimes call takers detest cell phones because of the number of accidental, pocket-dials they receive.

But even if they don’t hear any suspicious activity on the other end of the line, they’re required to call the person back and determine whether help is needed.

And when help is needed, employees are often rewarded.

“What I love about this job are those rare opportunities when you know beyond a reasonable doubt that because you showed up to work, somebody’s life was that much better,” Gonzales said. “That somebody’s life was saved, or you got to do something nobody else could do that day.”

Posted with permission of The Aurora Sentinel.

Related Link

• “Aurora, Colo., 9-1-1 Call Center Wins National Award,” by Sara Castellanos, The Aurora Sentinel, March 30, 2011.