Ashley Spencer had no plans to become a dispatcher.

The opportunity presented itself after she got to know several of the Winchester Police officers and communications officers.

“I used to work at Subway downtown,” the Winchester native said. “A lot of the officers and dispatchers came in.”

One day, they suggested she apply for an open position.

“I came in and job shadowed,” she said. “I thought it was interesting, and eight years later, here I am.”

Spencer said her expectations were based on what she had seen on television: “where people call in with the chaos.”

“When I came in, it was very overwhelming,” she said. “Over the years, the technology has changed. It’s made it a lot easier.”

When Spencer began, the department was still using analog radios and there weren’t computer generated maps to show where callers were located. Sometimes it was hard to understand the officers over the radio. Spencer said she had to memorize the officers’ voices. It took more with people calling 911 to find out exactly where they were and where officers, firefighters or ambulances needed to go.

“Technology has come so far,” she said, particularly with cell phones. “(Now) you call 911 and within a few seconds it will ping right where you are.”

Working in dispatch is more than responding to calls for service. The center handles all 911 calls for Winchester Police, Winchester Fire-EMS, Clark County Fire Department and the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, she said.

But that’s just where the job begins.

“We keep track of all the officers,” she said. “We answer the (non-emergency) lines. We do all the paperwork. We do (reports) on violent people, missing people. At one point we were keeping the call count. That helps with grants.”

The phone calls can run the entire gamut of non-emergency and emergency needs.

The first of the month and full moons usually bring busy shifts, she said, but the holidays are the most stressful.

“People will get depressed,” she said. “The worst are when the family comes and finds them.”

Being able to know they helped someone makes it worthwhile, she said.

“Usually, that’s the elderly,” she said. “Just being on the phone and assuring them they aren’t by themselves.”

Being a dispatcher means being able to multi-task, use common sense and to stay calm.

“It’s not for the faint of heart,” she said.