Working on a Holiday: Interview with a Dispatcher

ZANESVILLE, Ohio — “We’re just here to take care of business.”

Rick Creeks is a Dispatcher at the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office and works some holidays. “As far as family knows, you know they know they have to work around our schedules. They kind of do their thing until we’re able to join whatever activities might be going on for the holiday,” he tells WHIZ News.

Creeks is among a group of professionals in law enforcement, health care, telecommunications, broadcasting & hospitality who keep things going while a majority of people have the day off.

“We have to be the type of people that can do a lot of things at one time. Generally we’re taking a phone call and moving to the next phone call and trying to dispatch the previous call that we just took. It’s just a job where you have to be able to handle things that come at you fast and you have to make quick decisions,” Creeks says.

Dispatchers at the Sheriff’s Office say they’ve received fewer calls this year than in years past.