"Communications specialist" for a police department--does this mean a dispatcher?

[raccoon]

Anybody ever worked as a dispatcher/communications specialist?

[HopeHoops]

1. No, that's the guy who calls in the orders for Duncan Donuts.

[david13]

6. I thought it was Dunkable Donuts. dc

[rurallib]

2. My guess would be someone who could interpret from police to english

[GoCubsGo]

3. Sounds more like P.R. person

My county's sheriff's department has one until he died in a car wreck year or so ago. Whenever something department-related hit the news (murder, fatal car wreck, officer screw-up, etc.), he was the spokesperson who would answer reporters' questions. They never replaced him, likely due to budgetary issues.

[mcctatas]

4. that's what we call our dispatchers...

never worked as one, I can't sit still that long

[fizzgig]

5. in my experience it does

i know one current and one former dispatcher. the experience, of course, depends on the size of the department. one of my friends works overnights for a small campus pd, so she has a lot of slow nights. my other friend and i haven't spoken much about her experience.

but i've spoken with a lot of dispatchers in the past who say it can be an extremely stressful job.