Growing up on the North Shore and graduating from Carson Graham Secondary School, I enjoyed diversity in those jobs I chose such as waitressing, secretarial, clerical, cashiering and  working at Canada Place Pier for a cruise line.  Police dispatching had appealed to my sense of adventure and once hired, allowed me to put my organizational skills to work.

 

Training and recruiting for dispatchers by today’s standards has changed dramatically. Public Safety Communications courses are now offered by Kwantlen College for those interested in entering this field.  Personally knowing everyone who works in each Section within the Department is part of the appeal of working for the West Vancouver Police Department.       

What I like most about my job is that no day is ever the same – as dispatchers, you start with a clean slate every shift.  This allows me to anticipate what each shift will offer in the way of call volume, urgency of calls, and the several unique requests for service that we receive from the public and dispatch to our police members. 

 

With ever-changing technology, our Computer Aided Dispatch systems have increased the speed and efficiency of the dispatching process from those days when dispatchers would put pen to paper for each call received.  Police vehicles are now equipped with mobile workstations which allow the dispatcher to send electronic dispatches to each unit with one keystroke.

 

Working for the West Vancouver Police Department gives us the ability to offer a more personal touch in serving the public, by civilian and sworn members alike. We actually get to know those people living in our Municipality.

 

Being employed within the Municipality of West Vancouver and actually dispatching police members in this same jurisdiction is a mutually beneficial privilege that we enjoy and definitely don’t take for granted.