TVs in dispatch

[Deputy Joe]

A local, smaller department, recently took the TV set out of dispatch. On most winter nights and some summer nights, the dispatcher has no calls and no radio traffic and uses the TV to stay awake. The TV also assisted the dispatcher in keeping up to date in the morning with the weather (thus being able to answer telephone calls about the roads).

What do you think? Should dispatchers have TV sets as long as it doesn't interfere with work?

I say YES.

[shooter1201]

Ditto! I don't even mind the VCR and the DVD player. But the Nitendo I worry about.......

[Evnings]

Our dispatch has a TV in it. Its supposed to be on The Weather Channel or CNN. Our dispatchers spend most of their time on their cell phones that they find watching TV when they are supposed to be working a waste of wasted time.

[Lictalon]

Local department has a television and radio in the dispatch.

You either trust your people to be doing their jobs, or they shouldn't have that job. They hire you for your discretion as much as anything else. I have a computer in my room, and if I wanted to, I could spend the day downloading mp3s and watching flash movies. I don't, because I have a job to do.

Same with dispatch. If he or she can't figure out when to watch the TV and when not to, they probably lack the judgement to be doing the job they have.

My .02

[Sig220Man]

At one time there were no TV's allowed in the station, except the lunch room, unless it was used to show training videos. The rationale was that you were supposed to be working, and if you wanted to watch TV, you could do so on your Code 7.

Then, the Northridge Earthquake of January 17, 1994 happened. The ONLY people who were kept up to date on the disaster were those assigned to the Emergency Operations Center at City Hall, where someone from another city division had brought along a portable TV. It was they who first found out about the various freeway collapses. After this, TV's were purchased for various rooms of the department, including dispatch, the Watch Commander, and the Watch Sergeant.

What can be viewed on these TV's is the discretion of the supervisor and/or Watch Commander. Generally, on dayshift the TV is strictly limited to news and training videos only. On nights, it's more relaxed and often you'll find sitcoms and documentaries on A&E/Discovery/History Channel, or music channels like VH-1.

At no time would any programming that is deemed "workplace inappropriate" be allowed.

[JRT6]

I have no problem with tv's in dispatch and don't think we should punish all because the actions of a few, i.e. the better the show on the harder to get certain dispatchers to answer the radio(TV heard in radio background). And when they do they're ****ed you interupped Joe Millionaire or whatver crap they got cranked up.

[Delta_V]

I don't see any problem with TVs in dispatch as long as it doesn't effect the work of the dispatcher. If it's slow, why should the dispatcher have to sit there and stare into space?

We had a similar problem at work with the internet. Web access was made available to everyone, but because some idiot abused it and started downloading porn, it was taken away. Something that was a good tool to use ended up getting yanked because of one person. Stuff like that ****es me off.

[ 04-19-2003, 10:09 PM: Message edited by: PatrickM98 ]