When you think of 911 you probably think of the men and women who answer the phone to assist you in an emergency. However, 911 actually is a dedicated, high-speed phone network with special hardware and software designed to quickly route 911 calls to a pre-defined emergency answering point based on your calling location.

In Carroll County, Georgia, 911 call-takers and dispatchers assist not only the citizens of our county, but also the personnel from each of the different agencies and departments who respond to calls in our county. We hire employees to answer and dispatch 911 calls coming in on dedicated phone lines for emergency assistance.

The mission of Carroll County E-911 is to provide the best possible, trouble free network for the citizens we serve to access emergency services by dialing 9-1-1; to provide the best tools (equipment and information) to all service provider agencies that will enhance their response and their ability to provide public safety services; and to educate the public on the effective and appropriate use of the 911 network.

If you have any questions or want general information, phone us at our administrative number, 770-830-5922.

A PROFILE OF CARROLL COUNTY E-911

Before 911

Emergency service was accessed by six public safety agencies in Carroll County. These agencies were reached by dialing their specific phone numbers and their dispatchers obtained and dispatched the information.

Start of 911

Carroll County E-911 began August 1, 1985, with 12 employees. There were three supervisors and nine communications specialists. These employees served 76 officers/ deputies from five law enforcement agencies, 60 fire personnel from the city and county's 13 fire stations, and 18 emergency medical technicians employed by West Georgia EMS, who was the contracted provider.

Present 911 (2000)

We currently have 25 employees, including a 911 director, systems coordinator, database coordinator, two senior supervisors, one supervisor, and 19 telecommunicators who provide services to all citizens of Carroll County who dial 911 or any of our administrative lines. These telecommunicators also serve our responder agencies which consist of 182 officers/deputies from six law enforcement agencies, 113 fire personnel from the city and county's 26 fire stations and 51 personnel who provide ambulance service for Carroll County. There are also numerous other agencies that require our services after hours, such as the Department of Family and Children's Services and Carroll County Animal Control.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Expectations

As an employee of Carroll County E-911, you are expected to assist in the safeguard of lives and property; to assist in the protection of the citizens and responders of our county; to uphold and abide by the laws of the land and the policies and procedures of this department; to deal with all who come in contact via any means of communication with our department in a professional, courteous, and timely manner; to understand this is a job which requires shifts to be covered on a seven-day-a-week, 24-hour-a-day basis; and to represent this department and its county government in professional, caring manner.

Training

Training consists of six months to a full year of on-the-job training. This training includes four hours of TDD (Telecommunications Device for The Deaf/hearing and speech impaired), eight hours of healthcare CPR and 40 hours of emergency medical dispatch training which includes national certification. Georgia law requires that all 911 personnel must attend 40 hours of training to become a mandated communication officer within six months of employment (conducted at the Georgia Public Safety Training Facility in Forsyth, Ga.). Also required is study of a 12-chapter manual, certification for GCIC (Georgia Crime Information Center), and intensive training on call-taking and radio communications for each agency we dispatch.

Application & Hiring Requirements

DOWNLOAD E-911 JOB APPLICATION

Applications may be picked up during business hours at the 911 center located at 896 Newnan Rd., Carrollton, Ga. When picking up an application, you need to allow for enough time to sign a consent form and to be fingerprinted. The application may then be taken with you for completion.

To accompany your completed application, you must provide a copy of your high school diploma (a transcript with your graduation date documented is allowed) or state-issued GED (transcript is not allowed), Social Security card, driver's license and a copy of your birth certificate (it must show your full name and date of birth). A naturalized citizen must provide a certified copy of his or her naturalization papers and previous military service must be documented with a copy of your DD214.

EQUIPMENT

Emergency operations equipment consists of six combination radio dispatch/call-taker consoles and three call-taker consoles;
Prolog/Guardian recording system which provides a recording of all phone and telephone transmissions; TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf or hearing/speech impaired) on each console; Four GCIC (Georgia Crime Information Center) computers located on all law enforcement consoles; two 500-gallon propane gas tanks for backup to the Spectrum 60kw generator; Phase One Series 700 UPS backup battery; UL-certified lightning protection system; anti-static computer access flooring system with water leak detection and alarm system; access control and security system with closed-circuit television and intercoms at the entrance and exit gates; exterior doors; and entrance to the communications room.

Our facility is housed in a stand-alone building of approximately 3,500 square feet. This includes three administrative offices, two restrooms (one with a shower), one sleeping room that doubles as a storage room, full kitchen, training room, and the communications room.

Efforts and studies are in progress to procure a CAD System (Computer Aided Dispatch) with funding from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) monies.

EMERGENCY MEDICAL DISPATCH (EMD)

What is EMD?

The purposes of EMD are numerous and impact many aspects of emergency medical care. Some of the areas affected are the quality of patient care, performance of pre-hospital EMS providers, cost effective allocation of EMS equipment, professionalism of individual EMDs, and the community's EMS experience as stated in Dr. Clawson's manual "Principles of Emergency Medical Dispatch," second edition.

The information provided to 911 from the questions asked determines the severity of the call and directs the proper response including the code the units will respond to and the type of units to respond. It also provides valuable information to the responders for their protection and scene safety as well as protecting nearby citizens. It allows the responders to mentally prepare for the call before they arrive and alerts them to the type of equipment which may be required to aid their patient care. This information also alerts the call taker to the instructions which are needed to help sustain life or prevent further injury until EMS arrives.

Emergency Medical Dispatch is organized interrogation of persons calling for medical assistance. This is done by using a 32-card file system of medical protocols. These protocols are approved by the local medical authority. The protocols include specific questions, response configurations, and instructions for each medical, traumatic, or life-threatening complaint in the system.

The instructions provided are not ad-libbed. The call taker reads them from the card file system. The instructions include Post Dispatch Instructions which are specific warnings, advice, and treatments that can be relayed to the caller before EMS arrives. They also include pre-arrival instructions. Pre-arrival instructions are medically approved and written instructions given to the caller by the trained EMDs. These instructions help to provide necessary assistance to the victim and control of the situation prior to arrival of EMS. They include airway management and obstruction, CPR, childbirth, bleeding control, and treatment of shock. All instructions are read word for word to the caller to the fullest extent possible.

QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS

Why so many questions?

The questions 911 call takers are trained to ask are not to delay response of necessary responders but to enhance the responders' needs and to protect the caller or any nearby citizens. The answers that are provided are relayed to all of the responders who are en route. This relay of information provides the responder with vital information about the call itself, the nature of the problem, the people it is affecting, the severity of the situation, and the protection of the responder and anyone nearby. This information also helps the responders determine whether there is a need for lights and siren or if they can respond with the flow of traffic. The days when every responder went to every call with lights and siren are over. There are too many other lives that can be affected on the way to the call. Emergency vehicles are now more accountable than ever before regarding the use of lights and siren. There are many civil lawsuits that involve emergency vehicles involved in serious or fatal accidents. These persons and companies are held accountable for their actions and must justify their responses. The caller's answers to these questions help ensure the right unit is dispatched, the right number of units are sent, in the right mode of response. The EMS system as a whole also is utilized more than ever before. Often, there are more calls to dispatch than there are responders to send. The information obtained through careful interrogation of the caller allows the dispatcher to correctly prioritize the calls and send the units to the calls needing the quickest assistance first. Without the information, the calls would line up and be dispatched in the order they were received. The use of properly trained emergency medical dispatchers can positively influence all aspects of EMS response.

INSPIRATIONAL

Dispatcher's Promise
The Star Spangled Banner
To Remember Me
To Our Town, From The E.M.S.
Final Inspection
I Wish You Could
Never Give Up On The People You Love

DISPATCHER'S PROMISE

Another morning has approached as I think of my officer again. One of the many officers that swore to serve and to protect, and gave up his life in the very end. That fateful day is something that I am not allowed to forget. It is that memory that reappears each time I put on my headset. And when I sit in front of the radio and dispatch my officers to a priority call, I silently hope and pray that I hear them clear, instead of hearing them take the fall. You see, I have always read their voices and sat back up when I sensed tension or fear. But now, more than ever, it is their voice I want to continue to hear. Taking for granted that you will hear an officer do another traffic stop, just should not be done. For it does not matter how routine the stop or call may be, it only takes one. When one of our brothers or sisters is lost in the field the briefing room will then be left with an empty space. And in our hearts it is perceived, that this brother or sister will never be replaced. It is my solemn vow to all my officers to give my very best, and to be the voice they want to hear in their worst times of distress.

--Paula Ann Gomes,
Dispatcher with Yuba County Sheriff's Office in Marysville, California

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

It was the valiant defense of Fort McHenry by American forces during the British attack on September 13, 1814, that inspired 35-year-old, poet-lawyer Francis Scott Key to write the poem which was to become our national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner." The poem was written to match the meter of the English song, "To Anacreon in Heaven." In 1931 the Congress of The United States of America enacted legislation that made "The Star-Spangled Banner" the official national anthem.

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines on the stream: 'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so dauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion A home and a country should leave us no more? Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave: And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved homes and the war's desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust." And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

TO REMEMBER ME

The day will come when my body will lie upon a white sheet neatly tucked under four corners of a mattress located in a hospital busily occupied with the living and dying. At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped.

When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. And don't call this my deathbed. Let it be called the Bed of Life, and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.

Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face or love in the eyes of a woman. Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain. Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play. Give my kidneys to the one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week. Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk. Explore every corner of my brain. Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, someday, a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window. Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow. If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses and all prejudice against my fellow man. Give my sins to the devil. Give my soul to God. If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you.

If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.

by Robert N. Test

TO OUR TOWN, FROM THE E.M.S.

Sorry if we woke you in the middle of the night, but someone in your neighborhood was fighting for their life.

Sorry if we blocked the road and made you turn around, but there's been a bad wreck with people dying on the ground.

When you see us coming, we hope you'll understand and let us have the right-of-way, someone needs our helping hand.

Sometimes a child is choking, sometimes a broken leg, sometimes a heart stops beating and when we get there it's too late.

So if you see us crying when we think that we're alone, you'll know we had a "bad one" and were feeling mighty down.

You ask us why we do it "how can you watch a child die?" It's never very easy, but we'll try to tell you why.

We don't do it for the glory, but for a life that might be saved. We don't do it for the money, you know that's not why we get paid.

Somewhere deep within our souls are crying out. "We're here to help our neighbors in their hour of pain and doubt."

God gave us something special to help us see you through, we do it cause we love you and we care about you too.

Author Unknown

FINAL INSPECTION

The policeman stood and faced his God, Which must always come to pass. He hoped his shoes were shining. Just as brightly as his brass.

The policeman squared his shoulders and said, "No, Lord, I guess I ain't, Because those of us who carry badges can't always be a saint.

But I never took a penny, That wasn't mine to keep.... Though I worked a lot of overtime When the bills got just too steep.

I know I don't deserve a place Among the people here. They never wanted me around Except to calm their fear.

There was silence all around the throne, Where the saints had often trod. As the policeman waited quietly, For the judgment of his God.

"Step Forward now, policeman. How shall I deal with you? Have you always turned the other cheek? To my church have you been true?

Author Unknown

I WISH YOU COULD

I wish you could comprehend a wife's horror at 3 a.m. as I check her husband for a pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping against hope to bring him back, knowing intuitively it is too late. But wanting his wife to know everything possible was done.

I wish you could be in the emergency room as the doctor pronounces dead the beautiful little 5-year-old girl that I have been trying to save the last 25 minutes. Who will never go on her first date, or say the words "I love you mommy!" again.

I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the ambulance, The driver with his foot pressing down hard on the pedal, my hand pushing again and again on the horn, as you fail to yield the right of way at an intersection or in traffic. When you need us however, your first comment upon our arrival will be, "It took you long enough to get here!"

I wish you could read my thoughts as I help extricate a girl of teen-age years from the mangled remains of her automobile, what if this were my sister, my girlfriend, or my friend? What were her parents' reactions going to be as they open up the door to find a police officer, HAT IN HAND?

I wish you could feel my hurt as people verbally, and sometimes physically abuse us or belittle what I do, or as they express their attitudes of, "It will never happen to me!"

I wish you could realize the physical, emotional, and mental drain of missed meals, lost sleep and forgone social activities, in addition to all the tragedy my eyes have viewed.

I wish you could know the brotherhood and self-satisfaction of helping save a life or being there in times of crisis, or creating order from total CHAOS.

I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy tugging on your arm asking, "Is my mommy OK?" Not being able to look in his eyes without tears falling from your own and not knowing what to say. Or to have held back a long time friend who watches his buddy having rescue breaths done on him as they take him away in the ambulance. You knowing all along he did not have his seatbelt on.

Unless you have lived this kind of life, you will never truly understand who I am, what we are, or what our job really means to us.

I WISH YOU COULD!!!!
Unknown Author


NEVER GIVE UP ON THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE.
LOVE IS SO INCREDIBLY POWERFUL.

A Columbine High School student wrote:

"The paradox of our time in history is that we have
taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints;
we spend more, but have less;
we buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families;
more conveniences, but less time;
we have more degrees, but less sense;
more knowledge, but less judgment;
more experts, but more problems more medicine, but less wellness.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life;
we've added years to life, not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have
trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We've conquered outer space, but not inner space;
we've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul;
we've split the atom, but not our prejudice.
We have higher incomes, but lower morals;
we've become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the times of tall men, and short character;
steep profits, and shallow relationships.
These are the times of world peace, but domestic
warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of
foods, but less nutrition. These are the days of two
incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but
broken homes. It is a time when there is much in the
show window and nothing the stockroom; a time when
technology can bring this letter to you, and a time
when you can choose either to make a difference....or
just hit delete."