28 years is a long time to do a thing.

It isn’t nearly time enough to finish loving that thing.

When I was hired as a 911 Telecommunicator by Springfield-Greene County (Missouri) 9-1-1 Emergency Communications in 1994, I certainly had no way of anticipating that I’d be penning a blog post 28 years later as I prepare to leave, having served my last three years as the department’s first internally promoted director. Frankly, I wasn’t sure I could last 6 months – or that I even wanted to.

Like so many who “fell” into 9-1-1 as a career, I lacked the foresight to have any earthly idea what I was getting myself into. At 26, and slightly less idealized than I had been right out of college after a brief, shockingly low-paying stint in commercial radio (sans benefits, of course), I was just tired of being unable to afford to eat. Emergency Communications, for the little I knew of it, seemed like a solid opportunity to reset things. It was government work. Better pay than I was used to. Dependable. Good benefits. How hard could it be?

From those early training days on wobbly baby deer legs, thinking I’d let someone die each time I took a call or dispatched an event, I slowly steadied myself and found that I could do the job. As more time passed, I started to feel that I could excel, that I WANTED to be great at it. From there, as I progressed in my 9-1-1 career, I also learned that I could love the job. As I became a trainer, supervisor, manager and, ultimately, director over the years in that same center, everything about it became an integral part of who I am.

9-1-1 is wound tightly through my DNA. It has come to define me in so many ways. It happened slowly, while I wasn’t looking. To non-dispatch types, I have become less than great company . . . speak to me on the phone? I’ll take over and direct you to your point (sometimes a little more fiercely than I mean to). Hang out with me on a peaceful summer evening? I’ll get distracted for no apparent reason as my mind swims with how busy the dispatchers must be, despite the illusion of calm. Hear an emergency responder running code? I’m silently obsessed with their safety and what their dispatchers must be feeling. Because of 9-1-1, the way I perceive the world is forever changed; the way I walk through the world forever altered.

I’ve been in management for a while now but make no mistake — I am a dispatcher, and I always will be. It’s who I am at my core, forged through long hours, endless stress, hastily devoured meals at the console, real sweat, and real tears through all those years. There have been more than a handful of moments when I wasn’t sure what I had gotten myself into – but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

It is who I have been. It is who I always will be.

I am leaving Springfield-Greene County 9-1-1 after an unforgettable 28-year career. What I will never leave behind is my enduring love for the people I’ve worked with and the difference that we’ve made together. Lots of work relationships come to feel like family – but in 9-1-1, true family is forged at the console. You come to realize that your love for the people who do the job ultimately guides you on your path. It drives you forward, keeps you focused. It’s a fierce love and a deep dedication that sneaks up on you, that you couldn’t shake if you wanted to.

I will now channel that fierce love and dedication into my work at The Healthy Dispatcher, continuing my relentless advocacy for and dedication to this industry and its incredible, resilient people.

I can’t wait to meet you and your work families at 9-1-1 centers and conferences across the country — to laugh with you. To learn with and from you. To share my ideas, my experience and my passion for our industry as we continue to strive to improve it in every conceivable way.

Together.

About the Author:

Kris Inman is the Director of Program Development with The Healthy Dispatcher. He joined THD after retiring from Springfield-Greene County (Mo) 9-1-1, where his 9-1-1 career spanned over 28 years, serving the last three as director. He was the first internal hire to the position in the department’s history. Originally hired as a 9-1-1 Telecommunicator by Springfield-Greene County in 1994, Kris served as the department’s Training & Education Manager since 2012, working his way up from dispatcher, trainer and supervisor before landing the Director position in May of 2020.