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October 27, 2004 North Dakota "APCO" recognizes area dispatcher "Dispatcher of the Year" 
The North Dakota Chapter of Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), recognized West Fargo Police Dispatcher Brandi Dixon at their state wide meeting held in Fargo, Wednesday October 27th. West Fargo Police Dispatcher, Brandi Dixon, was recognized as "Dispatcher of the Year” based on her performance during a serious medical emergency in February of 2004. On 28 February 2004 at approximately 02:15 am, the West Fargo Police Department received a report of a large party in the City of West Fargo. Dixon directed officers to the location. While officers were in route to the scene, Dixon updated officers to the fact a fight had broken out involving twenty to thirty people. As officers arrived on the scene the people began to flee the area. Dixon received a 911 call from a cellular phone. The caller was frantic and sounded to be under the influence. The caller stated he and his friends had been at the party and his friend had been stabbed. The caller indicated his friend was bleeding heavily from a wound to the abdomen. The caller was unfamiliar with the area and was requesting Dixon provide directions to the nearest hospital. Without a location available, because the 911 call was placed from a cellular phone, Dixon had to determine the location of the victim. Dixon was able to determine through the description of landmarks and cross streets that the vehicle was in the West Acres area. Dixon convinced the caller to stop and allow FM Ambulance to meet them. Dixon directed FM Ambulance and Fargo Police Department to the scene. FM Ambulance was able to provide emergency treatment and transported the victim to Innovis Hospital. Medical reports indicated the victim lost nearly his full volume of blood during the incident. Dixon’s ability to locate the vehicle in which the victim was traveling, to convince the caller to stop to allow the ambulance to provide medical treatment, and her direction of emergency personnel to the scene undoubtedly contributed greatly in saving the life of the victim. (Article from the West Fargo Pioneer 11/3/2004) Dixon's quick thinking earns Dispatcher of the Year award By Mike Schoemer 
Lost, scared and with a friend in dire need of help, a carload of young men made the decision to call 911 on a lonely night in February. It was a good thing West Fargo dispatcher Brandi Dixon was on the other end of the line. In the morning hours of Saturday, Feb. 28, the West Fargo Police Department received a report of a large party in the city limits. Dixon dispatched officers, as she normally would, to break up the party. But this was a party that had turned ugly. A couple groups had spilled out onto the lawn in front of the apartment, located at 1111 Prairie Parkway in West Fargo. They were fighting, and weapons were in use. One young man, 20-year-old Joseph Gunter of Moorhead, was stabbed in the abdomen in the altercation. Friends loaded Gunter up in the car, and were attempting to take him to a hospital. “I think they were looking for Innovis Hospital, but didn't really know how to get there, so I told them to tell me where they were. They were kind of confused. I think the person on the phone was a little bit drunk. It's hard to say. They were very much running on adrenaline and they needed to be helped,” Dixon, 24, said. It wasn't a totally unusual night for the four-year veteran of the West Fargo Police Dispatch. Friday nights usually spill into Saturday mornings, with parties throughout the year. But in this case, she wound up saving a life. Dixon asked the men, who had called from a cellular phone, to keep describing some of the landscape through which they were driving. Because the call was from a cell phone, there wasn't enough time to trace the location of the call. Eventually, the car hit the West Acres area, and the passengers began to relay that they were aware of where they were, but still wanted directions to the hospital. Dixon convinced the men to pull the car over, and she dispatched FM Ambulance and alerted the Fargo Police Department as to the vehicles whereabouts. Her actions were made just in time. Gunter had lost nearly his entire amount of blood. The ambulance driver rushed him to Innovis, where doctors removed his lacerated kidney. He was placed in intensive care, and he began the road to recovery. For her efforts, the North Dakota Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) has recognized Dixon as the North Dakota Dispatcher of the Year. She was presented the award at the association's statewide meeting in Fargo on Wednesday, Oct. 27. “It's a nice gesture. I really don't think I did anything different from what any of our other dispatchers would have done,” she said, downplaying the award. “Tasha Shaw told me that she had nominated me, but I had no idea that I would win. It's a good feeling knowing that what you did was able to help somebody.” The fight turned out to be the result of a party with Fargo and Moorhead kids in a West Fargo apartment. Investigator Greg Warren said the case is still under investigation, and people are still being interviewed, eight months after the altercation. Dixon said that night, she used the same tactics she has used in many situations. Though most calls are pretty routine, but her training takes over in instances such as the night of Feb. 28. 
“It kind of comes down to instinct,” she said. “You are sent to training schools and go through every year to keep things going.”
West Fargo Police Chief Arland Rasmussen said his dispatch staff is a valuable asset to the West Fargo Police Department, and to the community. “They're very good at what they do,” he said. “They are an essential part of the department.” Though West Fargo was encouraged to join a regional dispatch center, recently, Rasmussen resisted, and the dispatch center here has remained. Dixon said that kept a good resource in the community. “People appreciate that they can buzz the door and come in after hours if they need to talk to an officer directly, or pay a ticket, or whatever,” Dixon said. “It's a great police department. We're a close-knit group. We know each other's families. You spend a lot of time with the people that work with you. So it makes it easy when you work with great people.” And despite the separation, Dixon said the department will always work closely with Fargo and Cass County Sheriff's Department personnel, just because of the proximity. “We get about a call a day where we're working with Fargo,” she said. “It's a pretty essential part of the job to be able to cooperate with them. Like the incident last Tuesday (where a man in the Amber Valley Parkway area in Fargo was shooting a semi-automatic rifle randomly from the balcony of his apartment). The first cell phone call came into our dispatch, so I had to call the regional dispatch to send out their officers. We were well aware of what was going on over there.” Dixon said she plans to continue to work the overnight shift, as she's been part of the night crew for much of her four years at the department. She said the overnight scene, a midnight to 8 a.m. shift, has become a regular thing for her. “I'm used to it now,” she said. “I've done it for so long.” Used by permission. |