Latest / Saluda County Unplugged / The County Budget Part 2 - What Happens After You Dial 911?
Transcript
- Josh Morton: Imagine this. It's two o'clock in the morning. Your house is dark. Your family's asleep. Suddenly, someone in your home has a medical emergency. You grab your phone and dial three numbers. 911. From that moment, dozens of people begin working together, many of whom you will never meet. Within seconds, someone answers your call. A dispatcher is entering information into a computer while talking to you, radios begin transmitting, deputies start driving your direction, an ambulance rolls out of the station, volunteer firefighters leave their home in the middle of the night to respond. Hospital staff begin preparing to receive a patient. All because you made one phone call. Today, we're going to follow that call from beginning to end and answer a question that most people never think about. What actually happens after you dial 911? And along the way, we'll show you why public safety represents the largest portion of Saluda County's budget. This is Saluda County Unplugged. Welcome back to Saluda County Unplugged. I'm Rachel. And I'm Josh. In the first episode of this series, we talked about the county budget as a whole and discovered something that really changed the way we think about local government. The budget isn't really about money, it's about services. Today, we're taking the largest service the county provides and pulling back the curtain to show what it really takes to make it happen. Because if everything works the way it's supposed to, you'll probably never think about any of it. So let's start at the beginning. You pick up your phone and you dial 911. What happens first? Most people would probably say a dispatcher answers. And that's true. But even before that dispatcher says 911, what's your emergency? Technology is already working behind the scenes. Your call is being routed to the Saluda County Dispatch Center. The automated number and automatic location information systems have begun populating data into the computer-aided dispatch system. Your phone number appears. Your location begins populating on the screen. The dispatcher immediately starts gathering information while simultaneously entering it into the computer. And that information isn't just for documentation. It's being shared with everyone else who needs it. And dispatchers are doing much more than answering the phone. They're asking questions, keeping callers calm, providing emergency medical instructions when necessary, coordinating responders, tracking where units are located. Watching weather conditions, monitoring radios, keeping records, And often doing several of those things at exactly the same time. It's a job that requires incredible concentration. Most people only hear one voice on the phone, but behind that voice is an entire emergency communications system. While you're still talking to the dispatcher, help is already moving. If it's a law enforcement call, deputies are responding. If it's a medical emergency, EMS is responding. If there's a fire or rescue situation, volunteer firefighters are responding. Sometimes all three are happening at once. And they aren't responding independently. They're responding together. That's one thing that I don't think many people realize. Public safety isn't just made up of separate departments, it is one coordinated system. Think about a serious motor vehicle accident. Dispatch is coordinating resources, deputies are managing traffic and scene safety, firefighters are stabilizing vehicles and handling rescue if someone is trapped, EMS is treating patients, emergency management may be involved if the incident is large or complex enough. Every agency has its own responsibility, but they're all working towards the same goal: helping people. Here's something that really stood out while preparing this episode. Most of what makes emergency response successful happens long before anyone dials 911. The radios have to work, the ambulances have to be maintained, medical supplies have to be stopped, patrol vehicles need fuel, computer systems have to stay online, training has to happen, employees have to be hired, volunteers have to be trained and equipped. Those aren't things people see, they're why the system works when someone needs help. It's kind of like an iceberg. The emergency response itself is the small part that everyone sees, but underneath the surface is everything that made that response possible. Years of planning, equipment replacement, preventative maintenance, training, technology, communications, policies, budgets. Without those things, there isn't an emergency response. Last week we mentioned that public safety and the justice system account for well over half of the county's general fund. Hopefully that makes a little more sense now. You're not simply paying for deputies or ambulances or dispatchers. You're paying for an entire system that's ready every minute of every day, whether someone calls or not. Think about your local fire department, which is, by the way, staffed by volunteers. Hopefully, your house never catches fire. But if it does, you expect the fire department to be ready to respond. The same is true for EMS, the Sheriff's Office, dispatch, emergency management. Their value isn't measured by how busy they are. It's measured by whether they're ready when someone needs them. And readiness costs money. Even when there isn't an emergency happening, these departments are still working. Deputies are patrolling neighborhoods, EMS crews are training and maintaining equipment, dispatchers are handling non-emergency calls, emergency management is updating disaster plans, writing grants, coordinating exercises, and preparing for the next hurricane, winter storm, or severe weather event. Success isn't just measured by how well people respond. It's also measured by how they're prepared before something happens. And that's one of the things I appreciate most about local government. If everyone does their job well, nothing exciting happens. And that's exactly what we want. So Josh, after putting this episode together, what's one thing that stuck with you? Really, it's just how many people are involved in helping one person. You dial three numbers, 911. But by the time help arrives, dispatchers, deputies, paramedics, firefighters, hospital staff, technology systems, mechanics, roads and bridges, IT staff, trainers, and countless others have all played a role in making sure we're able to respond. It's easy to focus on the ambulance that pulls into your driveway, but it's a lot harder to see the entire system that stands behind it. One thing I think stuck with me is realizing that emergency response isn't something county government starts after you call. It's something that we've been preparing for every day before the emergency ever happened. The response begins long before the phone rings. In the next episode in this series, we're shifting gears a little. Not every county service involves flashing lights and sirens. So next time, we're going to answer the question, what is county government doing while you go about your day? From recording deeds and maintaining roads to elections, planning, GIS, animal services, libraries, and dozens of other things happening quietly in the background, we're going to explore everything county government is doing while most of us never even notice. Thanks for listening to Saluda County Unplugged. Have questions or an idea for an upcoming episode? Email us at publicinfo at saludacounty.sc.gov. We'd love to hear from you. And remember, life's too short to eat stale French fries. We'll see you next time.