Stacie Huibregtse recently took over as the director for JeffCom, Jefferson County's 911 dispatch center.

Photo courtesy Stacie Huibregtse

Jefferson County’s sole 911 communications dispatch center, JeffCom, recently welcomed the arrival of its new director Stacie Huibregtse.  

Huibregtse is a Marine Corps veteran in addition to being a career dispatcher for the Washington State Patrol. Huibregtse actually happens to be a little more than a longtime dispatcher, she was previously in charge of the training program for up-and-coming dispatchers.  

When it comes to training dispatchers, the new 911 director said she didn’t think that there was really one specific quality that guarantees success, but the qualities that are needed, often need to come naturally.

“Overall, they have to have a willingness to learn and they really got to have a positive attitude,” she said. “Both of those things are not something you normally can teach ... Those are just inherent qualities that really tend to lead to success for a dispatcher in this position, just because the environment can be so stressful and long hours and lots of information that they have to learn.”

Emergency dispatchers are often tasked with taking phone calls and routing responses to people in the midst of the worst day of their lives. As such, Huibregtse said each dispatcher must navigate their work using coping tools and strategies that work for them personally.

“They handle a large amount of calls that are difficult,” she said. “As far as coping mechanisms or strategies, that’s really individualized. It’s going to be based on each person’s experience, each person’s personality. We do have lots of things that we do provide as far as resources for them to be able to utilize if they are struggling or having a hard time dealing with a call, but it really is individual.”

Huibregtse said over the years, the tons of calls she’s sent responses out for have ranged from the tragic to the hilarious.

“A gentleman called 911 on Thanksgiving and he said, ‘I need help cooking a turkey.’ I said, ‘Sir, this is 911, do you have an emergency?’”

The man explained to Huibregtse that while no emergency existed at the moment, if his wife discovered that he had failed to roast the bird, one would certainly be imminent.

“I had to hold it in so hard to not laugh hysterically at this guy,” Huibregtse said. “I directed him to Google and a few other things that he could utilize. But he was in a full-on panic.”

The new director said she made the decision to pursue the position with JeffCom at the recommendation of her superiors within the State Patrol.

After working as a station manager in Bremerton for four years and then running their dispatcher training program, Huibregtse said few opportunities remained for her to move up the ranks within WSP, at least in the near future.

So, following the advice of both her bosses, Huibregtse interviewed for the position and, as she puts it, “Ta-da!”

Huibregtse said JeffCom is facing a few challenges related to its existing technology available to 911 dispatchers.  

“Right now I think equipment and upgrading is going to be one of our biggest challenges. We have quite a bit of equipment that has reached end-of-life,” she said. “They really need to be replaced or upgraded, so I think it’s going to be a matter of working with the board that governs JeffCom and working with my user agencies to identify what equipment and what things need to be upgraded and then finding the funding to do so.”

Huibregtse added JeffComm may be looking to relocate to a new building, but she noted that prospect was a bit further out on the horizon at this point.

“The one we’re currently in is extremely small; it is old and it does not work well for the atmosphere that we need for the dispatchers,” she said. “We’re going to be looking potentially down the road of either building onto the current building we have ... or are we going to have to look at relocating?”

Staffing up JeffCom with additional dispatchers, Huibregtse said, was another box to check in the days ahead. While 911 dispatchers can expect a demanding job, the director added that it was also uniquely rewarding for those who are called to help others during their time of need.

“It can be a very rewarding career,” she said. “We don’t always get the accolades or the public recognition that some positions do. But deep down, it’s always nice to know that our responders and those that we help know how important we are and appreciate the job that we do.”