Dispatchers from 911 participated in the active shooter class and exercise. From the left are Mary Pipkin, Jennifer Pittman, Michaela Allegood, Tori Stone, Stephanie Hendry, Zeek Richardson and Jennifer Dowis( black shirt with her back facing the camera). Photo courtesy of Jennifer Pittman
> Dispatchers
He turned it over to Warburg and she told them that a lot of what she was going to cover was what the dispatchers experienced in the day-to-day operations of 911.
“ I want to start off by letting you understand what it’ s like behind the headset,” she said.
She went on to explain that the officer’ s radio was what they hear in their headsets but whenever they answered the telephone, the 911 caller was in their headset instead. Then, the officer’ s traffic was coming through the speaker that was down on their console.
“ If phones are ringing, then that’ s gonna muffle that speaker and we’ re having to do what we call’ split ear.’ Listen with this ear what you guys are saying compared to what our caller is saying,” she said.“ And trying to relate to you what our caller is saying until your response.”
She asked them to remember that when the dispatchers asked them to repeat their information, it was because they have a caller in their ear and their radio traffic through the speaker was being muffled out for whatever reason.
“ A lot of times we’ re having units that don’ t want to repeat themself. That has caused some little issues in the past,” Warburg said.
She said that was why she wanted to help them understand what went on at 911 and how their operations worked. She said another thing was that they had to remember was, for example, for the Moultrie Police Department, their main repeater was on the water tower.
“ So, when you key your mic, if you start talking immediately, your traffic has to hit that water tower, go to my tower, go through the server in the equipment room, then into the console,” Warburg said.“ So, you’ ve got like a three-second delay.”
Warburg said during an incident, their phones were going to start ringing the moment the first shots go off. She said, right now, just like every department, they were short of staff.
Warburg told the class that during an active shooter event, it would be crazy because the phones would start ringing immediately and they’ ve talked about it in some of their training. She said she tells the dispatchers that when the phones start ringing, they need to get the initial information.
“ You get what you got to have. Where is your location, where. What’ s going on? Who is it? Where are they at? Any weap-
School Resource Officer Abbie Tucker participates in an active shooter exercise at Stringfellow Elementary School. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Pittman
42 MoultrieScene AUGUST 2025