Page 125 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2019

or gunfire. To be sure, property crimes are the most-com- mon calls.
Regardless of the call, the dispatcher must be able to calmly get a clear understanding from the often-excited, fast-talking callers. They have to ask key questions and communicate that information to the responding police officers or firefighters that they will dispatch to the scene in seconds. To do that, they have to know the locations of the two dozen officers patrolling the city on any given day, and two or three times that many during special events. Same goes for the 50 firefighters working on a typical day at the nine stations throughout the city.
“Make no mistake: We could not do our jobs without them,” said Biloxi Police Chief John Miller. “I’ve never been a dispatcher, but I would imagine the hardest part is they can only take the call and hear the radio traffic. They are stuck at a computer screen, so what they have to do is imagine the scene and explain it to the police officers or firefighters, so they know where to go and have an idea of what they’re going to find when they get there.”
During a typical shift, one dispatcher answers the calls on the police radio; one answers calls on the fire radio;
one runs National Crime Information Center, the massive database used for criminal history checks; and one handles traffic divisions, which typically involve funeral escorts or other special details.
The city’s longest serving dispatcher is Lola Gruich, who has been answering calls in Biloxi for 36 years.
“I like what I do. You have to, to do this job,” she says. “I feel like I am giving back to my own community.”
Gruich began her career in 1983. “Back then,” she says, “we didn’t have computers or pagers, and had to com- municate through the radio. If we didn’t want something heard over the radio – everyone had radios back then – an
ABOVE: LOLA GRUICH is Biloxi’s longest serving dispatcher and has been answering calls for 36 years.
officer would have to use a pay phone and give us a tele- phone number to call.”
The biggest driver of police and fire calls has been the increase in the visitors to Biloxi and the myriad special events held throughout the year. Gruich, of course, has witnessed the growth and its impact.
“The police radio can be a lot to take in for 12 hours, especially if we have an event or a serious call. So, we all help each other out and rotate to give each other a break. If a big call comes in, such as a large fire, one of us may call the gas company, and one may call the power company, and notify the chiefs. And others are working the commu- nications from the scene. We have good teamwork.”
It’s a system that improves with training and experience, Gruich says. “On-the-job training is a long process, a year and sometimes longer. You have to learn maps, officers and firefighters names and badge numbers, codes, signals, and where to find information. Different information is need- ed during the nighttime than during the daytime. Certain offices are closed at night and different telephone numbers are needed such as for wreckers and marine patrol. You have to have enough knowledge about the job so that it becomes second nature.”
After 36 years, the job is second nature to Gruich, but it can still be challenging. Dispatchers have to work holi- days, during hurricanes, and, not unlike police officers and firefighters, miss birthdays, anniversaries and baseball games.
Adds Gruich: “I am not going to say it doesn’t bother me – it’s hard to be away from my family. But I have learned how to separate the two. You have to, otherwise it will eat at you and you won’t be able to do the job. We have to be on the top of our game; we are taking care of people, and it’s their lives that are at risk.”
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