PAX Centurion - Fall 2016

Page 38 • PAX CENTURION • Fall 2016 617-989-BPPA (2772) Memories of a BPD “Police” Dispatcher By Denise DePina Reed, Former BPD Dispatcher W ith the recent deaths of the late Police Officers Sandra Rucker Jones and Richard (Rick) Ingersoll, I found myself reminiscing of those days on the 7 th floor of the “Turret” at 154 Berkeley Street. I arrived there “green” on October 30, 1990 from District D-4 for a day tour. At the helm were Officers Brian Cunningham, Mike Morrissey, Val Johnson, Sandra Springer and Dick McCormick, who arrived every morning for work at 6:00 a.m. to do District B-2. The relief officers were Warren Morrissey and Arthur Garrity. I can remember those small terminals and headphones where if the power went down there was a long pulley system in the middle of the 911 call-takers area by which the calls would come, written down by hand and brought into the dispatchers, where we would have to track by hand what cars were on what calls. I was taught to dispatch by some of the best out there, and training was not something that took months. This was trial by fire, you got maybe two-three weeks and then you were on your own. I remember being in awe as Ellen Stone was on District B-2 with a chase. I am not going to go into pros and cons of whether or not we should have police officers or civilians on the mic. Currently one might think I am not allowed to have an opinion. But, anyway, this woman was directing these troops like a fine symphony. She knew every street, alley, backyard this suspect might be attempting to drive or run down, and she was directing every officer to head in that direction. We didn’t have computers that gave us that information; this was strictly “street knowledge.” That comes from being out there, knowing that Hartford Street runs intoWayland Street to Howard and that they might run through the train tracks. Or if Mrs. Barbosa’s grandson gets to the house, she is not going to let you in the house. You got that from J.J. Brown, Ronnie Myers, Rick Ingersoll, and the late Timmy Kincade. Each dispatcher knew their channel like they knew their home, they policed that channel every night but were just as capable on any other channel, and were a sight to “behold” when operating “two channels at the same time because someone was on break. The thing I remember most is that the Supervisors knew we held it down; we knew what we were doing and let us do our job. Being police officers on the channel gave us the distinct advantage of taking a call, which might not need the assistance of an officer in the street, speaking with the caller over the phone, taking care of their needs, writing a 1.1 if necessary or giving a miscel and clearing the call off the board. I found myself thinking about the funnier times. How many of us remember Leon Buckley couldn’t say McGillicuddy, and everyone would call him on the air and ask him to have that officer go to “seven.” I don’t think there was an Officer McGillicuddy. He also couldn’t say Oak Street. It was O-aek Street, and he would get mad and tell us, “You all know where that street is!”Who could forget J.J.’s “The Night before Christmas” over the air, or Ellen Stone’s infamous ALL-OUT “UFO” sighting with Bratton running up the stairs to the “Turret” to find out who put that out over the air, there was also Boston Operations KCA860 Boston Police at such and such time “women operating on all channels” compliments of Heather MacKenzie. The D201F Curley and Cook put in a call for an ice cream melted on the sidewalk and I read it out over the air before I realized who put it in. They were the original D201F, but the 201F that made their mark was Young and Burwell . Frank we miss you. “The Dog and the Bear” had a way of getting under Ennis’ skin just because they could and one night we turned around and Ennis’ seat was empty. There was a mad dash to take over the channel. Ennis was on his way to District D-4 for a confrontation with “the Dog and the Bear!”We never let him forget it. Timmy Stanton makes his debut as a dispatcher and he is dispatching on District D-4. Now when he was out there let’s just say he wasn’t that charitable to the dispatcher. But this day he is fussing about the guys, and I jump up, “Do my ears deceive me is this Timmy talking about D-4,” even he starts to laugh. When the shoe is on the other foot its a little tight. If you are not sure, let me make it real plain I loved dispatching and we were a “family.”We enjoyed what we did, your life was important to us and we cared about each other. I salute all of the Boston Police Dispatchers: Prescott (Rick) Thompson, Davy Perez, Dave Stewart, John Conway, Richie Caulfield, Late