Dispatch for a day !

          This week I was fortunate to shadow behind Matt Henninger, He is the Administrative Security Assistant for Independence National Park Service. I got to sit in on a debriefing about Freedom Week (July 4th) . Every person that was involved in the meeting was either active chief of their division and  the superintendent of Independence. In this meeting they went around talking about the Pros and Cons of what happened during the festivities and how they could improve or keep certain things the same. There were events such as Free Hoagie day presented by Wawa, Pops concert, the parade and so forth. Security had to be alert and overall they agreed that the week went as planned and to more successful years to come.
           I was extremely excited to become a dispatcher for the day. In my opinion it is a very important job; not only do you answer the phone or watch cameras but behind the scenes you're responsible for the on duty officers and staff around the park. With that you have to be alert and understand the variety of different protocols being thrown your way at different time or even at the same way. A dispatcher is someone who a officer calls into the radio, giving them their whereabouts or upcoming contacts with a pedestrian. They also log in everything that comes over the radio; this keeps track of reports for upcoming court cases or even something simple like checking if a work order for something broken in the park was placed.
          While at dispatch I was given the opportunity to speak to the officers over the radio and according to one officer he didn't even notice any mess ups and I sounded like I've been doing this for years. That's was pretty good to hear because while up there the fist half of the day I wasn't as confident to say things over the radio or reply back to their requests. I had to do a big announcement that lead to me calling out to all officers, making them be aware that a car on a certain street had the right to be parked on federal park property. With this I gave out the model, make, color, and license plate and location to confirm that this particular vehicle was allowed and no reports should be called in. Any incoming radio reports I logged it into the database with the persons location and name. That way we have recorded showing for any future problems. I had a very eventful week and was able to soak up a lot of very insightful information.