Date: Fri 29-Nov-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

police-dispatcher-Pratt

Full Text:

Lois Pratt Is Finally Leaving The Midnight Shift

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Sitting in the police dispatcher's chair provides a range of experiences, some

funny, some grim.

Lois Pratt of Botsford is retiring from the dispatch center, a place she has

worked for the better part of 30 years fielding telephone calls both humorous

and dire on the midnight shift.

Recently, she took a telephone call from a resident concerned about a curious

critter.

"This morning, a woman said a ferret came to her door," Mrs Pratt related.

"I said `Did he knock,?'" Mrs Pratt continued.

The woman had dialed police not quite knowing what to do about the pink-eyed

polecat.

Dutifully, Mrs Pratt took the woman's name and address and listed the matter

in the town's canine logbook.

Other times, people call to find out where and when they can vote.

During inclement winter weather, local schoolchildren who aren't inclined to

turn on their radios, often call, quizzing her about whether school's closed

for the day.

But other times, a disptacher's duties can be grim.

Mrs Pratt received an E-911 call three years ago from a woman who was being

held at gunpoint, and pleading with an assailant not to shoot her. Tragically,

the gunman shot the woman while she was on the phone, shot another man, and

then shot and killed himself in a grisly triple homicide on Thanksgiving 1993.

Mrs Pratt also recalls the grim night that she dispatched emergency calls when

four youths died in a traffic accident.

"It gets tough...It's difficult," she said.

Having lived in town for decades, Mrs Pratt often knows the people who are the

subjects of the calls she dispatches.

When she first started work 30 years ago in the Edmond Town Hall dispatch

center, Mrs Pratt used an old-fashioned telephone operator plug-and-jack

set-up, in which she put plugs into jacks to make telephone connections during

emergencies. By placing several plugs into several jacks she could send her

voice over telephone lines to several firefighters simultaneously, alerting

them of fires.

Then, the era of the "plectron" arrived in which a signal is sent from town

hall to electronic devices in firefighters' homes alerting them to fires.

Dispatching is much simpler than it was 30 years ago, Mrs Pratt said, noting

that a large part of the job has become computerized, providing rapid access

to information.

"It's mostly digital," she said.

The police dispatching booth serves as the town's E-911 center. E-911 calls

that require fire department or ambulance assistance are routed to the Edmond

Town Hall fire/ambulance dispatch center.

"It's fantastic," she said describing the E-911 system.

When an E-911 call arrives, information about the origin of the call is

provided on a computer monitor. The location of the call is provided, the name

of the resident, and any pertinent medical data about the occupants because

it's important that people responding to an emergency know what they're

dealing with before they get there.

To commemorate her years of service with the town, Mrs Pratt's colleagues and

friends organized a surprise party for her November 20 at the Sandy Hook

Firehouse.

A friend had told her there was a crafts fair at the firehouse, but when she

got there, Mrs Pratt was quite surprised.

"I was totally, totally shocked," she said, terming the event "fantastic."

"I was tickled," she said.

On November 24, the last day of her town employment, the flag at Edmond Town

Hall was flown in her honor. The first selectman has presented her with a

certificate recognizing her years of service to the town.

Though she has always worked the midnight shift, Mrs Pratt said she's not

going to miss it.

"You never get used to it," she said. "It'll be wonderful to sleep like a

normal human being, to go to bed when everyone else goes to bed," she said.

Mrs Pratt thinks the addition of dispatcher uniforms last year was a very

positive move.

"I think the uniforms are great. It's more professional. It was a good

addition," she said.

Mrs Pratt lives with her husband, Roland, on Meadowbrook Road. Roland is a

past chief of the United Fire Company of Botsford, having served in that post

for nine years. The Pratts have five children, nine grandchildren, and three

great grandchildren. Mrs Pratt enjoys sewing and knitting. Her husband does

carpentry.