Behind the 911 Console: Michael Armitage, Calhoun Co. Dispatch Authority

Join us as we go Behind the Console with Michael Armitage, Executive Director of the Calhoun Co. Dispatch Authority to discuss the important work 911 Dispatchers and PSAP’s do to ensure seamless public safety communications for our first responders. For the month of April during National 911 Education Month, we would like to take the opportunity to thank our Public Safety Telecommunicators for their service and dedication. #thankyou911 #911EducationMonth Transcript: https://cms.michigan.gov/mpscs/-/media/Project/Websites/MPSCS/Social_Media/Transcripts/911-Director-Armitage-Transcript-Final.pdf

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:19

Welcome to Tune In with MPSCS. I am your host, Judy Light. Today, our guest is Michael Armitage. He is the executive director of the Calhoun County Consolidated Dispatch Authority. We caught up with him at the Michigan Statewide Interoperable Conference to talk about the important work 911 dispatchers and Peace Apps do to ensure seamless public safety communications for first responders. For 50 years, 911 has served as the vital link between the American public and emergency services. For the month of April during National 911 Education Month, we would like to take the opportunity to thank our public safety telecommunicators for their service and dedication. Michael, thank you for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Thank you. I'm glad to be here with you.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

What exactly does that jurisdiction cover?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

So we cover all of Calhoun County, which includes uh some of the cities that'd be Battle Creek, is the biggest city uh within Calhoun County, and also Marshall and uh City of Albion.

SPEAKER_03 1:19

Okay. How long have you been there?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

I've been there about a year and a half.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

So can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Yeah, so I started dispatching right out of high school, 18 years old, uh in Mylan, my hometown. It was a one-person dispatch center. Uh we dispatched for uh police and fire. My neighbor growing up was a paid-on-call firefighter, and he had a the radio and a pager, and I would, especially in the summer, when his windows would be open, I'd hear it. It always interests me for whatever reason. So then, you know, when I was in middle school uh for Christmas, I got a scanner and started listening to the radio. So it was really the radio side that that piqued my interest, got me involved, and I became a dispatcher right out of high school, thinking that it was going to be a temporary thing while I was going to college. But then I ended up falling in love with the profession. And um, from there I grew in my um my experience, worked for the University of Michigan as a dispatcher for six years, and then at the state 911 office and also at Eaton County. I was a director there for five years before coming to Calhoun. So it's really been it's been an amazing career. Um, like I said, not what I envisioned when I first started. Uh parallel to that, I'm also uh involved in politics. I've been uh mayor in Milan and on City Council, and also where I live now in Charlotte. I am currently the mayor there as well.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

Excellent. Any hobbies? What do you do for fun?

SPEAKER_01 2:52

So I I play the trumpet. I just recently joined the uh community band in Charlotte. So that's a fun experience. I had I'd played on and off with the trum since high school, but this is the first time being part of a band again.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Uh since I've been out of high school, so that's been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

So what does your day-to-day look like?

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah, so for me as an executive director, I'm really looking really at the big picture, policy, you know, where the agency's going. Um of course, we are still a smaller agency, so I do have a lot of interaction with staff, discussing operations and and concerns that come up on that end as well. But on a day-to-day basis, I'm looking at uh making sure that you know we're in communication internally and also in communication with our external partners, our police fire, EMS agencies. Um right now we're working on a radio project, so that's taking a lot of time uh looking at building uh four additional radio towers in our county and providing radios to all police, fire, and EMS. So that project takes a lot of management and planning, and we're going through the process right now of getting those drawings for the towers approved. And uh it's really exciting time, actually.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

Now, what qualities do you think someone needs to become a 911 dispatcher? What is it that you look for?

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Yeah, so it it's a job that uh requires patience, uh, first off, um, but also the ability to multitask a lot of things that dispatchers do, telecommunicators do, um is multifaceted. So you're having to take information on the phone and sometimes also relay it on the radio, some and you're also putting into a computer system, and you have to be able to make decisions uh very quickly because you're going to have to make decisions as to what the next steps are, what instructions you're going to give them. You really have to be a critical thinker and uh really work on your feet because this is a job that is very fast-paced and it's very critical. You know, it's uh the hidden piece of the public safety ecosystem, if you will. But to me, it's so amazing. Um you walk onto the floor and it's almost like a symphony. Everybody knows what they need to do, especially in a major incident, and it all just works. And you have to be able to have those skill sets to be able to really think on your feet and and multitask and work as a team. You know, teamwork is a huge piece of the 911 industry.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

So if you had somebody interested in being a 911 dispatcher, what would you recommend that they do?

SPEAKER_01 5:37

You know, the minimum qualifications are are there for a 911 telecommunicator, you know, you know, mainly you know, high school diploma, things of that nature. But really, what's I think important for somebody interested in the profession, uh reach out to your local dispatch center and see if you can do a sit-along. You know, I think a lot of times in the training program, we'll bring people in and it'll be their first time inside a 911 center. And for some people, they really enjoy it, they can see themselves and it really fits. And for some people, they realize maybe it's not exactly what they're looking for because it can take a toll on you, right? The the the the types of calls you take and those types of things can can take a toll on people. So it's if you're interested in being a a telecommunicator, uh I really start by looking, um reaching out to your local center. If you're going to take a test, you have a lot of there's a lot of pre-employment uh testing involved. You know, it's really important to focus on your typing abilities. Uh that's a big part of the job. You can go to the state website, uh Michigan.gov slash snc. They have uh listing um links to all the job openings that they know of across the state. So that's a resource where you can go and see if your local 911 center uh has jobs open.

SPEAKER_03 6:57

Okay. Um what are some of the common myths you've heard about about dispatching?

SPEAKER_01 7:03

You know, there's a time period where it was thought of as you just answer the phone. How hard is that? When in reality it is so much more than that. It's it's really planning resources, making sure you're getting the right people to the right place at the right time. It's providing that comfort and care on the phone, it's providing instruction. You know, it's the CPR instruction, it's the pre-arrival medical instructions. Uh dispatchers every day save lives. And it's a profession that um, you know, it it's still just because of the nature of it, isn't well known.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

Okay. We're going to take a quick break and we will be right back.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Here's a quick quiz to get quick help when you call 911. Could you answer all operators' questions about your emergency and location? Should you stay on the line? Should you listen to information about how to help yourself? 911 gets thousands of calls each day. Operators are trained to ask questions so the right type of help is sent to each emergency. Always answer questions and listen to instructions, never hanging up. Help 911 help you.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Regardless of what you have seen or heard, 911 cannot locate you immediately when calling from a cell phone. Knowing your location is very important when calling. This is a simple as knowing the address you're calling from, teaching address information to children, and knowing what street you are on while traveling, know your location.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

Welcome back, everybody, and with us today is Michael Armitage. He is the Executive Director of the Calhoun County Consolidated Dispatch Authority.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Glad to be here with you.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

So, how has the MPSCS supported you and your agency?

SPEAKER_01 9:00

So our law enforcement agencies are currently on MPSCS and EMS. So we're working on getting our fire departments on the system, uh building up that system. But in my experience, uh both at Calhoun County and and elsewhere, the MPSCS has been that way not only to be on a com be able to provide a common platform for that interoperable communication, but also the ability to do that in a cost-effective manner because we now share resources. Because a statewide system, we can rely on radio towers that are outside of our county. So now we don't have to build as much infrastructure because we can rely on what's already there. And for a county, uh county government, that's huge. That's that's a big cost savings to be able to not only get the benefit of statewide communication, but also to be able to use those resources and build upon them so you're not just starting from scratch.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

I'll go back to my experience at Eaton County, uh, because when I was there we went over to the MPSCS system and it went from a radio system that was really uh multiple radio systems uh on old analog technology that had interference. Uh so there was many times where radios were just static-y, um, where officers could not get out, or um our fire dispatcher was listening to eight different frequencies just because it was again a hodgepodge really of radio systems that were used, um which did not provide interoperable communication. So going to the MPSCS, uh it was a huge benefit for us uh at Eaton County because it it uh not only did we improve the coverage, so now areas that didn't have radio coverage before had it, but now also your your different disciplines had radio channels that they could could talk to each other on. And you know, we've tested that in in exercises, uh, in training, but we've also um put it to the test in real life and being able to have um a system where you can segregate, for example, on a on a structure fire. You know, maybe your water supply has their own dedicated channel on the talk group or their own dedicated talk group and you know, fire operations have their own dedicated talk group. It makes things so much more efficient, and then everybody coming in, no matter what part of the county or even outside the county, able to be on that same that same talk group and uh communicate. So it it's made a huge difference. Um I know in Eaton County, and I'm really looking forward to it uh once we implement it in Calhoun fully.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Okay. Um Michael, do you have any memorable dispatching incidents?

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Uh one example where MPSCS has been very valuable. We had um a multi-jurisdictional um pursuit of a they're following a dangerous individual. And this spanned several counties. It went through Calhoun County, it went through Jackson County, uh, went through Branch County, uh Ingham County, uh, and ended up uh terminating in Eton County. And through that process there was a lot of agencies involved and through the whole period it was seamless communication because every agency involved had access to the MPSCS system. They're able to use a statewide talk group for communications and uh through the whole period, and actually uh I was in Muskegon for a different conference at the time, and we were monitoring monitoring the traffic over um the WAVE app so we could hear what was going on. And myself and an uh the Eton County 901 director were coordinating resources uh from here in Muskegon because we had that connectivity to the to the MPSCS system over the WAVE app on the phone. So we're able to monitor what was going on, and everybody through that whole incident that was involved had communication the whole time. And in the end, nobody was hurt, it was seamless, and it was just a great uh way to really demonstrate the value of you know in a multi-county response, everybody being able to communicate, and even for us as administrators being able to provide support to those in the dispatch center by being able to monitor on our phones what was happening.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

Excellent. Thank you, everybody, and that's all we've got for today. And thank you so much for being here today to talk about 911 dispatching.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

I appreciate the time and thank you for having me today.

SPEAKER_03 14:12

We hope you've all enjoyed the show, and we will be back soon. If you've been listening to tune in with MPSCS, be sure to look us up at www.michigan.gov on slash mps on PCM SoundCloud and on Twitter at MPSTS. You can also subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and Google Podcasts when you never miss another podcast to do the next time you think you're gonna be able to do that.