I tended to hang out with people I knew, and one of our group signed us all up for the Albuquerque PD PSAP tour (as opposed to the Bernalillo County PSAP Tour). When we arrived, our guides were quick to tell us this was their "old" facility, and a brand new one was under construction in another part of the city. Even so, they let me take pictures.
Yes, they are currently in the basement of the Police Department. Yes, they do work in subdued lighting. However, they DO have individual television sets visible to each set of four of consoles, which many of us thought was a nifty touch. (The volume was always extremely low; I think they just wanted something else to look at when they weren't busy. Which, by the way, wasn't often!)
For my first few photos, I tried not to disturb anyone by using my camera's flash, but after a while, the various dispatchers at whose consoles I settled in to ask questions let me know they didn't mind the flash, if I wanted to use it. The room was quite large, with several banks of consoles; it didn't seem to annoy anyone else, regardless of the subdued lighting in the room.
Albuquerque PD has three different "classes" of communications personnel: Calltaker, Dispatcher, and NCIC Operator. The NCIC operators are in a separate room by themselves, and they're quite busy. Officers change to a separate frequency to make their requests, which are then handled by the personnel working this position.
APD NCIC Operators and Dispatchers have to be radio-trained, obviously. So those two job classifications are different from the Call-taker position in pay scale. Call-Takers do not have to be radio trained. Most of APD's personnel are cross-trained, so the agency is working on reclassifying the three positions and attempting to get them out of a "clerical class of employee" category.
© 1996 - 1999
~Copyright information~
gryeyes@redshift.com
