No holiday break for the voice of the law

Journal Staff WriterWhile most people who got up at 5:30 a.m. Thursday were starting to prepare the Thanksgiving Day turkey, Susie Padilla was getting ready to leave her husband and 9-month-old daughter to go to work at the Placer County Sheriff?s Department dispatch center.Padilla, senior public safety dispatcher, said she couldn?t remember the last time she spent Thanksgiving with her family. As Deputy Tom Orsolini and Sgt. Matt Holguin brought she and the two other dispatchers, Laura Bumpus and Meredith Wendt, drinks from Starbucks at 9:30 a.m., the 13-year employee said working on a holiday is really not that bad.?You get time and a half (pay) so we have three or four more officers than usual on today,? Padilla said. ?On Christmas we don?t get as many (extra officers volunteering to work) because it?s a more popular holiday.?She said the officers stopped in at the center throughout the holiday as she took various calls. Padilla handled all the dispatch and administrative calls while the investigative and records department personnel took the rest of the week off.?A lot of the officers are able to have their meal break with their families or here and we usually have Thanksgiving dinner here,? she said.Outside of the open room, with about eight workstations, three or four computers and playback radios at each desk, a kitchen area had three pies set out in the morning. But the women rarely had a chance to get away from their desks and the radios.While Bumpus was checking driver?s licenses for patrol officers, Wendt was following up on the fatality Wednesday on Interstate 80 near the Ophir exit.?It?s hard sometimes because the Highway Patrol does the vehicle investigation and we do the death investigation,? Wendt said.She said someone was calling to see who towed a vehicle in the accident and the breakdown of jurisdictions is sometimes confusing to the public.?It?s split up so everybody has a piece of the pie,? she said.The former Yosemite dispatcher has also worked as a gardener, ski instructor, tour guide and ranger, among various other professions. She said she?s worked as a dispatcher for the last 11 years only because she finally has found a job that keeps her stimulated on a daily basis.?It?s one of those jobs where you can really say you?ve helped somebody on a daily basis,? Wendt said. ?If things go smoothly you (the public) don?t even need to know that there?s a dispatch. But it?s hard sometimes because there?s no closure unless we call to find out what happened.?Although Bumpus, a public safety dispatcher of four years, said most of her calls are routine, sometimes she gets one that gets her adrenaline pumping.?We are all type A personalities, I would have to say,? she said. ?When I was training to be a dispatcher, we had a hostage situation in Alta. A male was holding his wife and five children. When we talked him out of that gun, he had another one. He was trying to do a suicide by cop, but everyone came out of it alive. He was taken to a mental health facility.?Surprisingly, Padilla and Bumpus said the day remained slow up until the end of their shifts at 5 p.m. But Bumpus said the swing shift dispatchers would probably have their hands full.?I have no doubt that the calls will start coming in,? she said at 4 p.m. ?They?re still eating their turkey. From now until 2 a.m. they will escalate because people are drinking and they will start having family arguments.?Wendt left at 2 p.m. to drive to her father?s house in the Bay Area. Jerrilyn Gow came in at 11:30 a.m. and Kim Wiley started her shift at 4 p.m.Gow said her husband also had to work and her mother took her two children to a friend?s house for Thanksgiving, while Wiley said Thanksgiving was just getting started as she had to leave. Wiley packed her own dinner, although a full spread of turkey, dressing and several pies sat in the kitchen next to the center in the late afternoon.Bumpus celebrated the holiday with her husband and three children Wednesday and said she would eat the leftovers Thursday. Padilla said leaving her daughter on her first Thanksgiving was a little hard, but said she would see her and her husband at her parent?s house after her shift ended at 5 p.m.?As soon as we walk out those doors our lives will be totally different,? she said.