Legislation to classify emergency dispatchers as first responders has been working through the Iowa Senate and House. On Wednesday, a House committee recommended passage of House File 2395, and a Senate subcommittee recommended passage of the Senate version earlier this week. Washington County Communications Supervisor Cara Sorrells explains they currently fall in the clerical category, “We would like to be called first responders, because the thought has always been they just answer the phone, they’re not on the scene, they don’t respond to the scene. Well, they are on the scene by phone every time they get a call. And they handle a lot of things over the phone that people wouldn’t realize. They give pre-arrival instructions. They handle people needing CPR instructions over the phone. They’ve delivered babies here. They take a lot of high stress calls and they really are on the scene, but just via the phone.”

Sorrells says dispatchers go through a 40 hour mandated training at the law enforcement academy, emergency medical dispatch training to be able to give pre-arrival instructions like CPR over the phone, about three months of on-site training before going on the phone, and continuing education standards to meet. She adds that there’s no financial change in the classification, but is more about recognition and understanding the role 911 operators have across Iowa, “It is stressful because you know, you’re listening to the sounds, you may hear somebody crying in the background, you have somebody screaming because maybe they found somebody that’s not breathing or someone is choking. You’re trying to calm them down. You’re trying to give them pre-arrival instructions. A lot of times they don’t want to talk to you, they’re wondering, ‘Why are you wasting their time, why aren’t you just sending someone?’ What they don’t understand is that their partner is sending someone, they’re going to keep you on the phone and try to get more information to try to help them through it. So, a lot of times it’s hard and it’s difficult, because you’re not there but you’re trying to help.”

The bills have been passed unanimously by both the House and Senate committees and now move to the floor for vote. Click here for the House File and click here for the Senate File.