Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Process and Consequences of the Work of 911 Dispatchers

本博士论文研究旨在了解911调度员日常工作的过程和后果。 本研究的重点是调度员如何理解和应对通过911电话传达的公民紧急情况，调度员如何在计算机辅助调度（CAD）系统中编码公民呼叫，调度员压力的来源，以及调度员如何科普压力，他们的同事和相关组织的培训，治疗和感知。将在一个城市警察局的紧急通信中心进行广泛的实地调查，在那里接听911电话，派遣部队。 将完成对中心日常行动的数据分析，与调度员，主管，主管和学员的访谈，过去的电话记录，来电记录，CAD系统的信息，操作室和用餐区的日常互动，培训手册和书籍，以及媒体，市，州法院和州警察局的其他相关文件和档案。这项研究有助于在社会学领域的三个机构的文献：国家分类的做法，街道一级的官僚机构和社会学的专业。实证分析试图回答的古典和当今的理论问题，国家是如何代表和公民的经验。该研究探讨了国家分类系统的应用过程以及这一过程的成本和后果。该现场站点提供了所有呼入电话、电话记录、培训材料、现场观察访谈以及来自城市、大城市警察局的CAD登录的访问。这项研究将潜在地展示街道一级的国家雇员（911调度员）如何参与国家分类，将复杂的社会生活和明确的官僚类别联系起来。它有助于加深理解国家类别是如何应用和复制的，以及外部世界和国家表现形式之间的对应关系是如何通过人类代理人的不断努力来实现的。该研究还将提供有关911调度员所经历的压力和踪迹的实用和政策相关指导，并使公民更好地了解911调度系统的工作原理。

This doctoral dissertation research seeks to understand the process and consequences of 911 dispatchers' daily work. The study focuses on how dispatchers understand and respond to citizens' emergency situations communicated through 911 lines, how dispatchers code citizens' calls in the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, the source of dispatcher stress, and how dispatchers cope with stress, are trained, treated and perceived by their colleagues and related organizations. Extensive fieldwork will be conducted in an urban police department's emergency communication center where 911 calls are answered and units dispatched. An analysis will be completed of data from day-to-day actions in the center, interviews with dispatchers, directors, supervisors and trainees, records of past calls, incoming calls, information from CAD system, casual interactions in the operation room and dining area, training manuals and books, as well as other relevant documents and files from the media, the city, state court, and the state police. This study contributes to three bodies of literature in the field of sociology: state classification practices, street-level bureaucracy and the sociology of the professions. The empirical analysis seeks to answer the classical and present-day theoretical question of how the state is represented to and experienced by citizens. The research examines the process through which the state classification system is applied and the costs and consequences of this process. The field site provides access to all incoming phone-calls, phone records, training materials, on-site observation interviews as well as CAD log-ins from an urban, big-city police department. The study will potentially demonstrate how street-level state employees (911 dispatchers) engage in state classification that bridges complex social life and clear-cut bureaucratic categories. It contributes to an increased understanding of how state categories are applied and reproduced, and how the correspondence between the outside world and state forms of representation is accomplished through the constant efforts of human agents. The research will also provide practical and policy-relevant guidance regarding the stress and trails experienced by 911 dispatchers and provide for citizens a greater understanding of how the 911 dispatch system works.