Any workday, Dawn Clements could pick up the phone and take a call from somebody who's just been robbed or someone whose house is on fire. She knows that how she reacts to those people is a matter of life and death.

The 41-year-old mom takes around 100 calls in a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. shift as a dispatcher for the Granite City communications center. One week she'll work five days, the next week, two.

In her 19 years of dispatching police, fire and ambulance calls, she's heard just about everything.

We talked to her about her job during a break from taking calls at the Granite City police station.

QUESTION: What're the most dramatic calls that you get?

ANSWER: Usually anything involving children. Any kind of child abuse.

Q: Is that because you're a mother yourself?

A: Sure. And if you're asking about calls that bother me, dramatic calls, where your heart gets racing, you've got armed robberies, shooting, homicide.

Q: What about domestic abuse?

A: There's a common call where the female's calling fighting with the male who is still there.

Q: What do you advise her?

A: Stay on the phone with me until the police arrive. You ask them certain questions such as who is it; does he have any weapons; is it physical; if so, do you need an ambulance? Does he know you're calling the police?

Q: How do you cope with that? Do you think about that a lot off duty?

A: No. I don't take it home with me. I don't think you can. If you did that, I don't think you'd be able to maintain your job or your personal life. I'm not saying I never thought about a call after I went home, because I have. I think if you do that on a continuous basis, you're going to have issues.

Q: What are the silliest calls you get?

A: People will call 911 asking for obvious phone numbers, the weather report, is Pizza Hut open? If you can think of it, I've probably had it.

Q: Why do you like this job?

A: It's different every day. (Laughs.) You think you've heard it all and then a new day will pop up and you haven't. I enjoy the public.

Q: What do people not know about dispatchers that they should know?

A: I know one thing I would like to stress to people as far as the 911 system. It should be used for emergencies only. Unfortunately you have a number of people out there who call 911 when it's not a true emergency, which ties up the lines for other people that do have true emergencies.

You just have to realize that they're not having a good day when the police get called. Sometimes we take a lot of abuse in this job. We get cursed at, whatever. People aren't having a good day when they're calling the police.

Contact reporter Jim Merkel at 618-344-0264, ext. 138