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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 (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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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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