&nbsp;By JAMES BELL Hays PostIn July of 1985, Carolyn McCollum-Scantlin started as a dispatcher
for Ellis County, working as a point person between emergency responders and the
public. She never intended to stay permanently, but when she checked
out on Dec. 13 after 34 years, she left as the department's first and last director.McCollum-Scantlin was made the director about seven years
ago when dispatch was moved from the purview of the Hays Police Department,
but with her retirement, the position will transfer back to the HPD.She came into the position with no experience, but it turned
into her calling.“Having listened to a scanner for several years, I thought
that it would be something I would like to do,” she said.She went to the station and talked to Don Deines, filed the
application and settled in on the line.“I never intended to stay forever, nobody does, but I love it,”
McCollum-Scantlin said.Over the years, she saw many changes in the department that
she would ultimately lead.“The way it has changed is the amazing thing,” she said.“When I started, we had a telephone that you answered and
stuck under your ear while you typed on the typewriter on 3-by-5 cards.”After taking the information, an officer would stop by the
window and pick up the card.The officer would later type on the same card.“That was it, that was the report,” McCollum-Scantlin said. “Now
we have a headset and type it directly into the computer on CAD.”When she started, they had a black phone with five lines for
admin and a red phone with five lines for 911 calls.“No mapping, no addressing, if you were lucky, they would
tell you where they were,” McCollum-Scantlin said.Most calls now come in on cell phones, which in the early days
created even more challenges as they had no idea where the call was coming from.Current phone systems send location information.“It will give you a location, it may not be exact, but it
will be really close. Now we even have mapping that will pinpoint it on a map,”
McCollum-Scantlin said.With everyone having a cell phone, they often get a lot more
calls for rural incidents that help officers even more.“So, we are getting there quicker,” McCollum-Scantlin said. “It’s
much easier than it used to be.”While new technology continues to change the job, over her
years the technology that was the most impactful is one rarely thought of today.“Probably the thing that impressed me the most in all of the
technology though is the fax machine,” McCollum-Scantlin said. “All of a
sudden in the middle of the night, if I needed a picture of the bad guy, I
could get a picture in the middle of the night on the fax machine.”“I always told everybody, all of it is great, but it was the
fax machine that impressed me the most.”She attributes the continued technological development to
leaders that understand the importance of the dispatch center.“We are very fortunate. We have a good city and county that cares
about their population, and they help take care of them,” McCollum-Scantlin
said.While technology changed the job, she has seen other changes
as well, including a much larger staff, going from 7 to 14 during her tenure.“We need them. There is a lot to do,” McCollum-Scantlin
said.She said she does not attribute that to more crime, but more
reports and reporting that needs to be entered in real-time.Finding and retaining staff is one of the biggest challenges
facing the center now, something she attributes to changing attitudes as the workforce has different priorities than when she started. “I look at the younger generation and I see that they are different
than we were,” McCollum-Scantlin said. “We were happy in our generation to find
a good job that had good benefits and have settled in and stay.”“That’s not the way it works today,” she said. “I’m not
saying it’s bad, I’m just saying it's different.”Over the years McCollum-Scantlin dedicated her life to the
job, a quality that is rare these days.“I’ve lived my job. This is my life,” she said. Younger
people she believes are more inclined to put their personal life in the forefront
but appreciates the different view of work and life brought in by the younger
generation.“They aren’t satisfied with that, and I’m not sure they should
be,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed working with the younger people, and that’s probably
one of the reasons I have worked as long as I have.”Looking back now she understands how rare it is to find a job that you love and have the good fortune to be able to do it for so long.“I know how lucky I am because I have always been happy in
my job,” McCollum-Scantlin said. “I like what I do, and most people are not
that lucky.”As she has trained a new generation of dispatchers, she
shares her hope they understand the importance of the job, even if it does not
come with a lot of recognition.“You are the first, first responder, but there is no glory,”
she said. “You have to be happy knowing that without you nobody knows what is
happening, the right person doesn’t get sent, you are the true first responder.”“Once in a while you get a pat on the back, but you don’t
work for a pat on the back. You work for making a difference and knowing you
did the right thing,” McCollum-Scantlin said.“You have to say, somebody has to do it, I was there, I did
what I could,” she said. “If you don’t have that philosophy, you don’t stay with
this.”

After 34 years Ellis County dispatch director says goodbye to job she loves