I am a Police Officer in the State of Utah.  My goal with this petition is to bring legislation to require all state agencies to recognize Dispatchers as First Responders, and to introduce them into the same retirement plan that other First Responders belong (Public Safety).  This would allow dispatchers to retire at 25 years of service, instead of 30/35 years. I would appreciate your support in this cause.  It's a simple signature to show the State of Utah that the public recognizes dispatchers are on the front line.

Recently I discovered that the the State of Utah does not require that 911 Dispatchers be classified as 'First Responders'.  Even the Utah DPS Website states "Dispatchers are the critical link between callers and first responders."  Utah DPS is, to put it simply, wrong.  Dispatchers aren't the link between callers and first responders, they ARE first responders.  Utah gives agencies the decision to classify 911 Dispatchers in the category of 'administrative/clerical,' or as ‘first responders’.  Administrative and/or secretarial work is an honorable career.  It's the career my mother has worked for many years, and one dear to my heart because of that.  Many men and women across our state, and country keep businesses afloat with attention to detail that FAR surpasses my ability.  Our dispatchers ALL possess this talent.  But they are so much more. They are the front line of Utah's front line.  The difference between the 2 catergories is that First Responders are placed into Utah’s “Public Safety Retirement Plan”, and are granted the opportunity to retire after 25 years of service as a Tier 2 employee (20 year retirement as a Tier 1).  Administrative/Secretarial employees are classified into the “Public Employee Retirement Plan,” and are required to work 30 years (Tier 1) or 35 years (Tier 2) before retirement is allowed.  To require an additional 10 years of service to receive the same benefits that other first responders receive paints a picture to dispatchers across the state that they are not First Responders.  To allow agencies to not recognize them as such, shows that they may not be wrong in this feeling.   
 
Before any of Utah's first responders can "answer the call", Utah Dispatchers literally have to ANSWER THE CALL. They are first responders, in every sense of the word. To deny them the title of First Responder is dishonest, at best.  Let me paint a couple of pictures for you, that I hope will illustrate my point, that they should be classified as first responders.  
 
It's summer - mid August and the days are long and hot.  Kids are out swimming in the pool, and the worst case scenario comes to pass.  I am dispatched to respond to the scene of a drowning victim. She is 7 years old. The parents are understandably heartbroken.  I know the chance of bringing their angel back is next to impossible, but I make every attempt to perform a miracle.  Today there is no such miracle.  Their little child has passed away.  I look at my partner.  We both nod our heads to each other, silently reassuring the other that we did all that we could do, even knowing what the outcome would likely be.  As the Medical Examiner arrives to the scene, the teary eyed parents thank myself, my partner, and the paramedics on scene for what we tried to do.  It is at that point I realize they are still on the phone with our dispatcher.  The dispatcher is also witness to the heartbreaking sobs from family members or friends.  Unfortunately, they also heard the panicked screams of "PLEASE HELP MY BABY" long before I arrived on scene.  Our dispatchers were the ones who stayed calm in this families worst nightmares, and convinced someone to get the child out of the pool so they could walk them through how to perform CPR; a stressful and intimidating technique to even us who were trained in a controlled classroom environment. The dispatcher guides them through the process until I arrive, and in many cases the dispatcher is forgotten as soon as I leave.  I am more proud to call myself a First Responder than any other title I have heretofore held, however there was one group of people who responded to the call before I even knew about it. They are the dispatchers. 
 
In another scenario an officer is parked in his car writing reports.  He has worked a long shift and has a momentary lapse of situational awareness which prevents him from constantly checking his surroundings.  "SHOTS FIRED, I'M HIT!!!" The worst case scenario for a law enforcement officer blares over the radio. An officer has been struck by gunfire and is in need of immediate backup and medical attention.  The officer can hear the sirens of his brother and sister first responders coming to help him, but he doesn't know if he will make it.  If the dispatcher has any information wrong, more hands for the fight will not arrive in time.  "Dispatch, please don't leave me. I'm scared."  Countless times in our country, the last person to hear from, or speak to a dying officer is the angel on the other side of the radio.  Dispatch is our voice in the dark. The group we reach out to for solace when all seems lost.  It is they who respond first, even to police and medical personnel.   
 
During our Covid-19 crisis, dispatchers become the heroes to not only those who call for help, but guardian angels to those of us who are sent to render aid. A call for medical comes out, “Delta response” (this means life threatening, turn on the lights and sirens and get to the call NOW).  A man can’t catch his breath and is turning purple. As I arrive on scene with fire & paramedics, I don my PPE because my dispatchers have done their due diligence and discovered this man has symptoms of the pandemic illness that has devastated our world. Without their quick work and thorough screenings, officers, EMTs, Paramedics and fire personnel across the state would be infected, and the virus would spread like wildfire across our departments.  Inside of the New York Police Department, no fewer than 17% of their officers have tested positive for Covid-19.  In my small department, that would be 3 full time officers who would have to be taken off the schedule to prevent spread to other officers.  Overtime would become mandatory, stretching thin an already thin budget. 
 
Dispatchers are the unsung heroes of the first response community.  Without them, we all (police and fire as well) are helpless and hopeless.  While police and firefighters have battles, and visual memories that come to haunt us in the quiet of our lives, dispatchers have the same battles with memories of those calls that changed their lives.  Those calls that the general public would not be able to handle, come in every day.  The PTSD that they can, and often do endure should not just be "cost of the job" that the state of Utah should allow agencies to overlook.  By classifying Dispatchers as First Responders, we are recognizing their daily sacrifice, and the stresses of the calling they have responded to.  A number of counties across the Unites States, along with the states of California and Texas have all implemented legislation to recognize 911 Dispatchers as First Responders.  It's time that Utah took this step and showed the front line of our first response team that we acknowledge them.  We would be nothing without them, and they deserve to be in the same classification as other First Responders. 
 
My goal with this petition is to bring legislation to require all state agencies to recognize Dispatchers as First Responders, and to introduce them into the same retirement plan that other First Responders belong (Public Safety).  This would allow dispatchers to retire at 25 years of service, instead of 30/35 years. I would appreciate your support in this cause.  It's a simple signature to show the State of Utah that the public recognizes dispatchers are on the front line.