As I write this, I have arrived at 30 years in the 911 industry.

30. Years.

For added perspective, here are some tidbits to help better place 1994 in time:

• Pulp Fiction, Forest Gump and The Shawshank Redemption were released in theaters
• Friends debuted on TV
• Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com
• The first PlayStation console was invented
• Google didn’t exist yet
• The first ever online purchase – a pizza from Pizza Hut – was made
• Adam Timm was 15 years old

This kind of time passage is always hard to fathom – but I find it particularly odd, given that I am a 26-year-old man (editor’s note: the grey hair and beard have been artificially added for “professorial effect”).

I’m obviously joking. I’m 32.

My first instinct as I fired up the creaky analog mental hard drive was to report on how much has changed during the last three decades – and make no mistake, a LOT has changed.

I’m equally as struck, as I sift through the cerebral archives, by how much has remained the same.

Here are some observations on both realizations:

• The job: It still demands perfection and it’s still a customer service gig at its core, despite the technological advances – from ANI/ALI to computerized phone systems to CAD systems that are no longer powered by a mouse on a wheel – that have come down the pike. The job also still requires the same dedicated, caring professionals with tough outer shells and mad multitasking skills that it did in 1994, and it remains a profession that few can do well.
• The training: Just as difficult as it was back in the day – though more structured programs, clearer benchmarks and defined expectations have helped to better standardize it than the wild, wild west days of, “We’ll sit you with a veteran who may or may not want to train you, and they’ll just tell us when they think you are ready.”
• The dispatchers: Still hilarious, incredibly smart and ridiculously persistent. It may take a few less steps to find information now than it did in 1994 but make no mistake – the same detective-like instincts that power a dispatcher’s quest for answers in 2024 were absolutely the same in 1994, regardless of the available pathways to get there. In 1994, user agency requests came via a staticky VHF radio, and the answers came via paper maps and thick phonebooks. In 2024, the requests come from a digital trunked radio system and the answers emerge from a quick Google search. Methodology has evolved, but the dogged determination needed to find resolutions hasn’t changed a bit.
• Critical incident stress and PTSD: Maybe the biggest and most welcome changes I’ve witnessed over the last three decades are the ways in which our industry has come around to the idea that vicarious trauma is both real and potentially damaging for dispatchers. From telling us in the 90’s, after taking tough calls, to, “get back on the phones, it’s not like you were actually on scene” to now having our own peer support teams in-house and making sure our people are cared for after difficult incidents has been an incredibly heartening evolution to experience.
• The hours: Still long.
• Achieving full staffing: Still a unicorn.
• Saying, “It sure is quiet in here” when the calls go silent: Still punishable by swift blows to the head and neck region.
• The uniforms: Less “mall security guard” more “comfy sleepover.”
• Brownies, cake and pizza: Still hit the spot when the crap is hitting the fan on the dispatch floor.
• Being recognized as the first responders that we are: Still in progress.

Growing personally alongside our profession – and maturing because of it – has helped me immeasurably along the way as well.

It has humbled me when I most needed it, shown me a path when I didn’t think I had one and helped me build skills and confidence that I sorely lacked.

I have learned over the past 30 years that I am far more capable than I ever assumed I could be, and that I belong in the same club as the most amazing people I have ever known.

The job has helped me reimagine the way I see the world and my place in it, and I am forever grateful for it.

Much of what I have experienced in my 911 career was difficult to see in real time. But hindsight has revealed the ultimate truth of it all:

Falling into this wacky, improbable profession has been one of my life’s great blessings.

I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

About Kris Inman:

Kris Inman is the Director of Program Development for The Healthy Dispatcher. A 30-year veteran of 9-1-1, Kris retired in July 2023 as Director of Springfield Greene County 9-1-1 in Springfield, MO. An awarded speaker and instructor, Kris has delivered standout educational sessions, keynotes, motivational talks and yoga instruction to dispatchers across the country. He is also a long-time college adjunct instructor, teaching courses in communication and public safety leadership. Kris holds a Master of Arts in Communication and a Bachelor of Science in Electronic Media from Missouri State University. He is also a registered yoga instructor.