Pocatello 911 Dispatcher April Neal Sheds Light on the Demands and Rewards of Emergency Telecommunications in Idaho
When a Bannock County resident dials 911, the first voice they hear does not belong to a police officer, a firefighter, or a paramedic. It belongs to a dispatcher — someone like April Neal, who has spent nearly a decade fielding some of the most urgent calls in Southeast Idaho.
Neal, a 911 dispatcher for the Pocatello Police Department, is one of the unseen first responders who work behind the scenes to coordinate emergency response across the region. During National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, her story offers a rare look inside a demanding profession that rarely receives public recognition.
A Day on the Dispatch Floor
Neal works 12-hour day shifts, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., managing everything from life-threatening medical emergencies to parking complaints and utility bill questions. On a typical weekday, she and her fellow dispatchers handle approximately 100 calls each. Not every call is a true emergency, but each one must be answered, assessed, and routed correctly — often simultaneously.
“A lot of people think that we’re just secretaries, but we multitask constantly,” Neal said. “We are taking calls. We are dispatching out medical for the entire county of Bannock County, and we also dispatch police for the city of Pocatello. We are constantly doing something and entering paperwork into the NCIC database.”
The dispatch center operates with a minimum of three dispatchers per shift — one assigned to police calls, one to 911 and medical emergencies, and one to the non-emergency line. Neal is candid that three is a floor, not a comfort level.
“We definitely need more dispatchers,” she said. “If a big incident occurs, then it’s really difficult when there are only two call takers on the floor. The more dispatchers, the easier the incident can complete itself.”
During fire season, the volume of duplicate calls about a single incident can overwhelm the center. Neal described a streamlined response her team uses to move through the surge: “We’ll answer the phone, ‘911, are you calling about the West Bench fire?’ If they don’t have any new information and nobody is hurt, we tell them we have help on the way and move to the next call so we can get to someone who might be in dire straits.”
That kind of rapid triage — managing multiple crises without missing a single caller who may truly need help — is a skill built over years. Becoming a Pocatello dispatcher requires roughly 27 weeks of training, covering the department’s computer systems, paperwork procedures, emergency medical dispatch certification, and police dispatching. Neal notes that police calls represent the most difficult discipline, given the direct responsibility dispatchers carry for officer safety.
“Officer safety is the biggest issue,” she said, “and making sure that they’re safe and knowing where their locations are and making sure we check on them constantly.”
Notably, the Pocatello Police Department is the only law enforcement agency in Idaho certified in Emergency Medical Dispatch, a credential that reflects the department’s commitment to professional standards in public safety telecommunications. That kind of institutional accountability is exactly the sort of law enforcement investment that serves communities well — and events like the temporary lockdown of Pocatello and Chubbuck City Halls following a threat report illustrate just how critical rapid, trained dispatch coordination can be when a community faces an active public safety situation.
The Human Cost — and the Reward
The emotional weight of the job is real. Neal acknowledges that dispatchers are regularly exposed to callers’ worst moments — trauma, grief, fear, and crisis — and that some calls stay with her long after her shift ends.
“One of the things I do is I go home, and I go for a walk if it’s been an extremely stressful day,” she said. “I still pitch softballs, or I officiate volleyball. It’s separate from what I do day in and day out, to help realize that there are good people, there are good things out in the world.”
She rarely meets the people she helps. But through feedback from officers and paramedics, she sometimes learns that a call she handled contributed to someone surviving their injuries and making it to the hospital. That knowledge, she says, is what keeps her coming back.
“That’s what keeps me coming back to the job,” Neal said. “I love helping people.”
For anyone dialing 911, Neal offered straightforward guidance: know your location. “That is the first and foremost question that a dispatcher will ask you,” she said. “Just answer the questions that the dispatcher asks you directly. We are getting help there. It’s not delaying.”
The coordination behind that guidance extends well beyond the phone line. In major roadway incidents like the semi crash into a concrete barrier near Heyburn, it is dispatch teams who manage the flow of emergency resources and communication in real time — often under intense pressure.
Neal closed with a message of gratitude for her colleagues across Idaho and the nation. “The police department and every agency couldn’t do what they do without serving the public the way that dispatchers do,” she said. “They’re amazing.”
What Comes Next
The Pocatello Police Department’s dispatch center continues to operate around the clock, staffed by dispatchers like Neal who field emergencies across all of Bannock County. Department officials have indicated that additional dispatcher positions are needed to meet call volume demands, particularly during high-activity seasons. Residents interested in a career in public safety telecommunications are encouraged to contact the Pocatello Police Department about open positions and the department’s training program. National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week serves as an annual reminder that Idaho’s emergency response system depends on these unseen professionals every hour of every day.