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O'Connor provides the voice behind 911 calls

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Contributed by: Joseph Kirchmer/YourHub.com on 8/12/2008

Iva O'Connor's desk is cluttered, but not messy. The five computer monitors, three mouses, two keyboards, telephone and foot pedal that comprise her work area might give a less-than-technologically-savvy person the chills. The desk is all set up to make multi-tasking as efficient as possible for O'Connor, a police dispatcher for the Adams County Communication Center, Adcom 911 for short. The ability to multi-task is the name of the game here and often makes the difference in critical emergency situations. "It definitely takes a certain kind of person to do this job," O'Connor says during a graveyard shift Aug. 8. "If you're not a good multi-tasker, you can get so far behind. Usually the people who can't do it quit within the first couple of weeks." O'Connor, of Thornton, has become adept at her job in the six years she's worked at Adcom 911, which provides communications for 13 police and fire agencies in Adams County. It's a high-stress, fast-paced position that relies heavily on familiarity and experience. "It's definitely something you really need to be trained to do," she says. "It's not something you want to rush through. I would say it takes at least a year to get fully trained." Dispatching could be viewed like teen cell phone texting on a much, much higher level - everything is abbreviated and cloaked in code. A typical conversation with the 21 deputies she's communicating with tonight sounds something like this. "Copy en route two Adams 64," or "Two Adams 62 go ahead." A typical message might look like this, "RP thinks this was the veh that took off." "After you've done this for so long, it's almost second nature," she says. It's about 7:30 p.m. when a report airs of a truth or dare game that resulted in a sexual assault on a child. She slumps in her chair and says, "These are the ones that bother me the most." O'Connor plans to use her experience as a dispatcher in the legislative arena. She's working toward a degree in political science and hopes to someday help pass laws dealing with sexual trafficking. That's down the road, though. By all accounts, she likes where she is now and the people she works with, especially the sense of humor that permeates the office. The dispatchers here conduct themselves professionally and take their jobs seriously, but the occasional joke is a must to help ease the tension. O'Connor laughs as she looks at a picture of a co-worker's face that was "photoshopped" to the body of a character in the movie Nacho Libre. Her smile fades a bit when she glances around the office at the people she's worked with for so long - all of whom are focused on their computer screens, speaking into headsets with monotone voices. "I'm almost scared to leave because I've formed such a great bond with the people here," she says. "We all work so well together because everyone backs each other up. Everyone has their own unique strength. We truly work as a team."

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