Editor’s Note: March is National Women’s History month. This is the first in a six-part series of interviews with successful and influential area women.
Women are taking care of business at the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office.
Sarah Lancaster has been the 911 director since 2018.
Not only is she doing one – if not the most – important jobs when it comes to public service, but she also is an EMT and volunteer firefighter for North Webster.
Lancaster started at Kosciusko County Central Dispatch 16 years ago, after working at the Syracuse dispatch center.
She’s also the North Regional Vice President for the National Emergency Number Association, representing the northern half of Indiana 911 call centers.
“I fell in love with this job,”?Lancaster said. “They describe us as the first, first responders. We’re trying to get the information and paint a picture for those who are going to the scene.”
When you call 911, you need help and you need it now. If it weren’t for Lancaster and the 20 other employees there who work eight-hour shifts around the clock, police and fire wouldn’t know where to go. They don’t get up and go to lunch, they have three computers running 24/7, they dispatch the radios, they answer the phones and help calm people down to get pertinent information.
“You have to stay calm on the phone, and sometimes it’s hard to get the person’s attention,” Lancaster said. “For them to be calling 911, it’s the worst day of their life and usually involves a loved one, so trying to get them to calm down can be a problem, but we have techniques.”
Repetitive persistence is one of those techniques, where the dispatcher will say the same thing in the same way every time.
“You can’t change your inflection or anything like that,” she said. “One other good tool is you start talking lower and lower and softer and softer and they say, “What’d you say?’ And you got them.”
The dispatchers don’t only handle police, fire and EMS, calls either. At times they have to communicate with other hospitals, other 911 call centers, utility companies, the county’s street and highway departments, and even, yes really, people who call in asking where an address is so they can get to a garage sale.
“It’s very busy, you have to be on it,” Lancaster said. “There’s a lot of reaching out. You don’t have time to sit there to stop and think. A lot of it is you really are going on muscle memory and instinct. This is not a secretarial job. TV has played a role in misrepresenting what 911 dispatchers are and do. We’re professionals as well.”
Lancaster was pleased when Indiana deemed dispatchers as first responders.
“Before that, we were clerical,” she said.
You probably know what 10-4 means, but do you know what a 10-50 is? Or how about a 10-0 or a 10-5 or a 10-46?
You probably don’t unless you Google them. But for dispatchers, that’s how they communicate efficiently with police officers and fire fighters. It’s the standard way to communicate longer phrases. A 10-50 is a car wreck. A 10-0 means someone is dead.
When police pull over a vehicle, they call into dispatch to run the plate. But they don’t say 54JKA2. They use a phonetic alphabet to avoid misunderstanding and wasting time.
The dispatchers at Kosciusko County – who have nearly all been there for more than eight years – take weekly quizzes on the radio signals and phonetic alphabet.
“911 is not what you think it is, it’s a lot more than that,” Lancaster said. “As long as you’re 18, I’ll let you come down and sit for a little bit and see if it’s truly what you want to do. This job isn’t for everyone.”
But for her, she can’t imagine working anywhere else.
“I know a lot of 911 directors across this state, and we are all in this for the same reason, and it’s because we want to help our community,” she said. “I think that they would all do whatever they could to make sure the citizens of their county are getting the best, most professional service they can. You don’t have to be what is stereotyped for women. Think outside the box. If it’s something you really want to do, follow your dreams. If it means pursuing an education, pursue it and don’t let anybody tell you can’t do it, because you most certainly can.”
Handling business in another way at KCSO is Sheriff Kyle Dukes’ matron Kris Woodard.
She was appointed to the job when Dukes became sheriff in 2018 and she’s brought her 28 years of education background to the position.
Woodard is responsible for handling things like payroll, the budget and keeping the sheriff’s business matters in line.
“I absolutely love the people, and it’s a great place to work,” Woodard said. “I’ve had to learn a lot and that’s probably something that I love to do. I like to think that I can never quit learning.”
Woodard would know a thing or two about learning. She was an elementary school teacher and the principal of North Webster Elementary for 11 years. She retired from the job in 2016.
When she was asked to be the matron at KCSO, she had to learn some new things. For starters, she went to online jail school.
“I felt like I needed to do that to really understand how the jail works and what it means to be a part of the jail and how the laws and different things involved with the jail have come about and what our expectations are back there,” she said. “It was really helpful to someone like me that has never really been involved a lot in that.”
Even though Woodard ran a school for more than a decade, she was surprised to find how complicated running a sheriff’s office is.
“It’s a lot to fit it all together. To have men out on patrol in this large county, make sure every shift is covered, that all the jail shifts are covered, there’s just such a lot of inner cogs and inner workings that people don’t see on the outside,” Woodard said.
For the sheriff, the work of these women is not lost on him.
“It is an honor to have a tremendous group of females on our staff,” Dukes said. “911 Director Lancaster’s multi-faceted emergency service history serves us well in her capacity with a wide-ranged knowledge of communication. Matron Woodard’s educational and managerial experience brings a unique and truly beneficial level of expertise to our team.”
“I would want any girl or young woman to follow a passion, it’s not too late,”?Woodard said. “I’ve heard people say I wish I could play the piano, well you know what, find a way to do that. It makes life fun. And find good people to be with.”
