With a field background, and that of a time when the 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' way of thinking, I am not the most 'PC' of dispatchers in the comm center. Fofr example, I still refer to all field units, no matter if they are fire, ems, or law enforcement (male or female) as my guys. I can't help it. It was that way when I opened the door to the ambulance and ran my first call and the mode of thinking continued when I took over the radio.
My co-workers were a team way back when with our field crews. If one of us threw a party, we all showed up. It didn't matter what color uniform any of us wore, whether our workstation had an orange (or red) cross, a blue Star of Life, was a big red engine, a black & white squad car, a gurney in an ER, or a radio console. Yes, there were places where dispatchers were included in the late night after work beer-fests in the open three-level parking garages. Company Christmas parties rotated from differnt houses (or a local eatery), and it didn't matter if one lived in a cramped apartment close to Lake Merritt (Oakland, CA) or in an average city in Los Angeles County (you can fill in your own town). We all pushed in, standing up because the room was too small to be sit down. No problem! Next time, a person with a house would play host - or we'd take a couple of cars, or BART (subway) to San Francisco for a pub crawl and later choir practice at the Coit Tower. The next shift at work, it wasn't unusual to see a couple of the attendees laid out on a couch, each with an IV running to rehydrate prior to satrting their shift. The 'luckier' ones were sitting sucking oxygen, cracking jokes about their colleagues.
It was all in good fun. Cops, firefighters, ems, dispatchers, and ER folks - we let out steam, aired out our grievances, went to hear some tunes, even saw a play or two. I have some wonderful memories of those trips.
I don't hear about those after work excursions anymore. Sure, there's now EMS weeks, Nursing week, Telecommunicators Week, etc. We honor our own, but does anyone else participate?
Small agencies have an advantage over the large departments. Dispatchers get to know the law enforcement officers. In some cases, fire and dispatch may even see one another as well. Medium sized and larger may only know those on the shift they work.
How can you change that?
Attend patrol briefings if you can. Go on ride-alongs with all three divisions (fore, ems, and law). If the fire and law enforcement is receptive, give a presentation on communications to the academy. Supervisors - offer to have trainees from the field sit along with your dispatchers , and not just on a slow Tuesday. Let those rookie cops, firefighters and ems personnel sit with a radio person on a busy Saturday night. Let them see what a dispatcher does and why it may take a little time to handle a request on a warrant channel, or a tow, let that EMT see how that CAD system works. Have a field trainee listen in to phone calls and maybe they will get a hint of how tough it can be to obtain information from an uncooperative RP.
Maybe it will help foster some improved communication in the long run. If nothing else, it might get your telecommunicators some sympathy from the field units.
We have our new warden hires sit in dispatch with us during the FTO phase. We are a statewide department with only one comm center for the entire State. With staggered shifts and days off, we all have times where we're by ourselves. In those cases, we often have multiple units calling on multiple repeator banks. Deciding which unit to answer is a toss of the dice. Obviously, we'd like to get the one calling in a stop or contact, but there's been times when more than one does that at the same time, so which one do I pick?
I've seen their eyes get big when multiple units call in simultaeously. They're even more impressed when every unit is handled. Still as we know, sometimes, we can't answer everyone right away, as when we're handling an in-progress incident. We can only do so much. Being in here with us for a day, hopefully, gives each new Warden a bit of perspective of a dispatcher's job.
We also send a dispatcher to the law enforcement in-service training sessions. We take advantage and pass on information relevant to dispatch. In return, the assigned dispatcher bring back information to the rest of us. It's a nice way to share news.