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What happens to phone numbers that were used for spam? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 weeks ago by to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
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I live in the US and we've got elections coming up. Every day for the past several months, I get 3-8 text messages from political campaigns per day. I block them every time, yet they keep coming in.

My question is NOT how to stop them, but what happens to those numbers that I, and surely hundreds and maybe thousands of other people have blocked? What if an actual person gets that phone number and needs to call people? What happens then?

Because on a long enough time line, all numbers will have been used for spam.

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[–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

As much as I'm capable of liking any job, I do like this one.

Funny enough, a big part of the reason I took the job was the same reason you cited, I was working in a warehouse, on my feet, carrying boxes around all day, and being able to sit down in the air conditioning sounded really nice.

Every dispatch center does things a little differently, but where I am we work 12 hour shifts on a 2-2-3 rotation, which is fairly common

So this week I'm off Monday and Tuesday, work Wednesday and Thursday, then off Friday-Sunday

Then the next week it's the opposite, and Wednesday and Thursday will be my days off.

I love that schedule, I never have to work more than 3 days in a row without a 2 day break, , I have days off during the week to get stuff done, and every other weekend I have a 3 day weekend, if I plan my vacations right I only need to take 2 days off to get a whole week

The one I work at isn't union, which has its pros and cons. Pretty much all the surrounding counties are union though, which helps keeps our wages competitive. I think most of the others around me make slightly more than we do, but one of the first concessions that tends to get made in contract negotiations is mandatory overtime, so since we aren't union we don't have that. If you do end up somewhere with mandatory OT, usually that means staying for a few hours after your shift ends as needed, not coming in on your days off. I don't mind working 12 hours, but anything beyond that feels like too much, so I'm kind of glad that's not something we need to do.

It can of course be mentally/emotionally draining for all of the reasons you're probably thinking. I don't think I need to list all of the horrible things I've gotten calls about, or the kinds of unpleasant people I've had to try my damnedest to help. People do of course get burnt out on it.

And it does feel good to be helping people, but if you're on Lemmy I'm sure you're not totally ignorant of all the issues that exist with policing, mental healthcare, etc. so you do also sometimes find yourself wondering if what you're doing actually is helping.

Overall, it's a good job, I do like it a lot, I recommend it semi frequently to people who are looking for a new career, and basically every dispatch center in the country is always a little short staffed and almost always hiring, so there's plenty of opportunities for it. And usually the requirements are pretty minimal - clean background check, high school or GED, basic computer literacy, good typing skills, ability to speak clearly, etc.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (6 children)

    Hey thanks for the write up, I really appreciate it. I think I’m going to apply to my local office. From a quick search it looks like my local police force hires in bulk, so you apply whenever and when they do a round of hiring they just go through all the resumes at once and go from there. Not sure when the next hiring spree is, but it doesn’t hurt to apply now and just let it sit. There’s also an online test and an in person test you have to complete before your interview so I guess I’ll have to do that too, but that’s not too bad I don’t think. It probably helps weed out people who aren’t taking it seriously, which could go in my favour maybe. Either way, I really appreciate you taking the time to explain it to me.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

    Yeah, that's roughly how my center does it, definitely go ahead and get your application in if you can, I know my center keeps them on file for a while and even if you don't get picked for the next upcoming round of hiring you might potentially get an offer for 2 or 3 classes down the line. I think we usually do about 3 rounds of hiring a year, so it may be a little while before you hear back. There was one guy who took the test at the same time I did and ended up being in the next class, so it was probably about 6 months between him putting his application in and when he started.

    When I started (about 8 years ago now) I went to a hiring event where we took the aptitude tests and got an interview on the spot. After that, we scheduled a job shadow to come in for an hour or two listening to calls being answered dispatched to see what the job is actually like.

    To give you an idea of the timeline, I think the hiring event was around August, I got my conditional offer in September, and class started late October.

    After getting the offer, I had to do a hearing/vision/drug test, and sort of a psych eval with the county psychologist. Some other agencies have more requirements, I've heard a lot of places have you do a polygraph test.

    In addition to 911, in a similar vein there might be some similar dispatch jobs you can look into as well. Some police/fire/EMS departments s might have their own dispatcher in-house, some agencies like state police, park rangers, game wardens, animal control, etc. might have their own dispatch separate from 911 as well. Public transit and railroad companies often have their own police, so do some bigger colleges.

    Or if you're not bothered by the ethics, some bigger security/private investigation companies like the pinkertons have their own sort of dispatch roles.

    And if there's no residency requirements and you don't mind the commute, you can look into your surrounding cities/counties to see if they're hiring. We have a couple people who work at my center who actually live pretty far out of the county.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (4 children)

    After doing a bit of research it looks like my local police force only hires once per year, in the fall. They don’t specify a cutoff date. Hopefully I haven’t missed it yet, I’m going to apply tonight once the little one is in bed and my wife comes home from work. I guess worst case scenario I’ve applied for next year and am stuck at this job for another year. I didn’t really have any other plans anyway.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    Since you keep talking about your local police, I'd also double check that that's who handles 911 in your area. That might be a role just for police dispatch for that one department.

    There's a lot of different situations, and in some cases it is run by the local police, but very often 911 is part of either the county sheriff's department or department of public safety, and will handle police, fire and EMS dispatch for a larger area than just one town.

    Not that being the station dispatcher is a bad job, I think most of them around me make more than we do at county, but it may not be the job you're thinking of.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    The position I was looking at (through the local police force) is specifically called “communicator” and according to the job description:

    The position of Communicator has two distinct roles: 9-1-1 Call Taker and Police Dispatcher. All new members start with Call Taker training, answering calls for service from 9-1-1 and administrative phone lines. After they complete the training and demonstrate proficiency, they train as a Police Dispatcher. In this role, they are responsible for dispatching the calls to officers based on priority response and risk assessment.

    Does that sound like what you do? It’s the position I was looking into when I initially asked you about the job, but I’d definitely be down for applying to other dispatcher/call roles like you mentioned too.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Yeah that sounds roughly equivalent to what I do

    Where I am, PD, FD, and EMS are all dispatched out of the same center, and we do start generally with call taking and then eventually get trained on police dispatch, and eventually fire and EMS.

    Since the job posting only mentions call taking and police dispatch though, I suspect your area works things kind of like the big city that neighbors my county does

    There, 911 calls first go into the police dispatch center, and if fire or EMS are needed the caller is then transferred to the fire department so they can be dispatched and medical pre-arrival instructions can be given.

    So in case you're more interested in fire and EMS dispatch than police you may want to look into more specifics of how your area handles that, there might be a similar job posting with the fire department or something you could apply to.

    I've actually personally chosen to remain as a call taker only despite being asked pretty much every year if I want to get trained on dispatch.

    I have a few reasons for that- one is I just don't particularly want to deal with cops directly that much, I also just think call-taking is the more interesting and fulfilling part of the job, and also it leaves me with something else to move onto if I ever start feeling burned out without having to completely change jobs.

    Although I think some of our newer hires who have gone on to dispatch class don't always understand that and think I'm a fuck-up who's getting passed over for promotions. C'est la Vie.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    I really appreciate your insight, it has been incredibly helpful.

    I actually have a pretty strong connection to the fire department so I might look into that too. Honestly, anything to get me out of where I’m currently working. Way too much stress for the shit pay I get. Not worth it.

    I also totally get why you’d stick with just 911, your reasoning definitely seems sound. If I get the job and get into the position where I can do both or just calls, I’ll definitely consider your perspective.

    Thanks again for all the help. You’ve given me lots of great info, and lots to think about. For what it’s worth, my wife is 100% on board with me doing this and when I told her I was speaking with someone online with direct experience in the field, she was very excited and appreciative of you. I just thought you should know that.

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