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Behind the Calls: Adair dispatchers handle pressure few see The Adair County E-911 Center has proved time and again their qualities in helping people. Mig Feuser talked for The Adair Progress with the center's director, Derrick Murphy, about the state of the center and the development. The Adair Progress: "Adair County 911 dispatchers are often the first point of contact in emergencies. What kind of training and ongoing professional development do your staff members receive to prepare them for such high-pressure situations?" Derrick Murphy: "Adair County E-911 Center employees have to attend a four week training in Richmond at Kentucky's DOCJT [Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training] at Eastern Kentucky University to become a certified dispatcher. After they attend this training they become certified dispatchers and have to complete 8 hours of re-certification training yearly." AP: "Emergency dispatching can be a demanding profession. What challenges do you face in recruiting and retaining qualified personnel, and how are you working to build and keep a strong team?" DM: "Retention has always been a problem among telecommunication centers. In 2023 Adair County had gotten down to where we only had four full time employees. Since January 2024 we have changed the atmosphere and culture at the center. We have been fully staffed since that time. We have a family atmosphere and the only thing that would help is a pay raise to be competitive with other centers. Our dispatchers make less an hour than many other county departments but our dispatchers stay for the love of the job, just not sure how much longer they will be able to afford to stay. Weekly we have neighboring counties offering them more money to come. They continue to decline the offers but how much longer will they be able to continue to survive and not accept these offers?" AP: "In the recent case where dispatchers helped guide law enforcement during a search and subsequent pursuit of a suspect, what specifically was happening inside the 911 center, and how critical was that coordination to the outcome?" DM: "Behind the scenes during emergencies the general public sees our amazing police officers, fire fighters, EMS, and other first responders but only know that 911 answers calls. On a major incident our dispatchers are answering numerous calls at once, talking to multiple agencies on the radio, running NCIC [National Crime Information Center] information, checking criminal histories, using up to eight computers at once. Answering emergency calls and non emergency calls all at the same time. During major incidents we don't get just one call most times in15-20 calls for a major wreck. Years ago we had a house explosion and our dispatchers answered over 150 calls in the first hour." AP: "How has technology at the 911 center evolved in recent years, and what tools or systems are most essential today for handling calls and coordinating multi-agency responses?" DM: "Technology over the years has really advanced in the world. In October 2006, when I started as a part time dispatcher, we were located inside the jail. We had one computer and one phone. We didn't have access to all the new tools that we have today. In 2017 we became able to have NCIC in our facility as to where we use to have to call Kentucky State Police Post 15 for that info. We didn't have the tools of e-warrants, courtnet, rapid deploy or any of the many other tools we have readily available today." AP: "Dispatchers must remain calm while relaying critical, often life-or-death information. How do you train your team to manage stress and maintain clear communication in rapidly changing situations?" DM: "Communication under pressure a lot of times can't be taught. That is why you hear often not everyone can be a dispatcher. Not many people can take the high stress of calls especially when its someone you grew up with, it's your family and in this small community most of the time we know the victims in car wrecks, murders, drug overdoses but some people are just called to this profession and for that we need to figure a way out to keep these special people at our facility and not let other counties come in and steal them away because of better pay and benefits. AP: "What do you wish the public better understood about the role of 911 dispatchers and the impact they have on emergency response in Adair County?" DM: "I believe that our community unlike most other communities understands the importance of 911 dispatchers and the community shows us a lot of support and love. I would simply say that I know the fiscal courts budget is tight, but we have to get these guys raises. Yes, they got $1.00 more last year, but when there our county employees making more than $3.00 an hour more than I make and my dispatchers make $1.00 less an hour than I do we have a problem. Its a great time at election time to ask these candidates how they plan on getting money into the budget to make dispatchers pay equal to the other county departments." This story was posted on 2026-05-13 10:39:00
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