Retiring Tampa dispatcher celebrates work, honors mom who inspired his career
TAMPA, Fla. - For 19 years, 911 dispatcher Tony Collins has heard every kind of emergency.
"A non-breather, a vehicle that hit a pedestrian, something that's on fire, and it's fully engulfed," said Collins, who is a dispatcher at Tampa's 911 Police, Fire and Rescue Communications Center.
Pictured: Tony Collins.
The fast pace and stress brings people who work here together.
"When people talk about law enforcement being a family, it truly is a family," said Tricia Figueroa, one of the managers at the communications center.
In Collins' case, it was the family that brought him to this line of work.
Pictured: Phyllis Jackson and Tony Collins, mother and son.
His mother, Phyllis Jackson, has been a dispatcher for more than three decades. She convinced her son to apply for the job.
"I knew he would grasp it really fast, and he's excelled at it," said Jackson.
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Pictured: Phyllis Jackson.
Collins said his mom stressed the good benefits package that comes with the job, but he remembered as a child being impressed with her uniform.
"I asked her one year for Halloween if I could wear it, and of course, she said no," he laughed.
But, it was much more than a uniform that both mother and son found to be the reward of working in the communications center in Tampa. They've helped countless people in need who call 911.
In addition to dispatching, Collins became a trainer, helping new recruits learn the unique skills emergency dispatchers develop.
It's much more than answering the phone, it's also analyzing the nature of a call through the voice and other sounds on the other end of the line.
"You can determine what's legit, or if it sounds like she's not being honest, or he's around a group of folks that aren't allowing him to speak freely," said Collins.
"Some of the things he could do better than me," said Jackson. "He became great at it."
But Collins has decided that 19 years is enough. He's retiring, and his last day is Sunday.
The mother, whose footsteps he followed, will stay.
Co-workers at the communications center gathered as Collins cut his retirement cake.
"I'm going to miss the people and definitely my mom," he said.
He may learn to stop saying "What's your emergency?" when answering the phone, but he won't forget how following in his mother's footsteps helped so many people when they called 911.