Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. In seconds.

Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. The phrase might be the unofficial motto of the Marines, but it certainly applies to public safety dispatchers, as well.

A phone rings. The clock starts.

Before anyone rolls a rig, flips on a siren, or leaves the station, a dispatcher has already begun building the entire incident… alone, from nothing.

• Where is it?

• What’s the caller’s phone number?

• Who is calling?

• Is the caller safe? Are they the victim or a witness?

• Is English their first language?

• Are they local?

• Old voice or young voice?

• Are they driving? Can they pull over?

• Is there someone closer who can talk more clearly?

• What actually happened?

• Is it still happening?

• Who needs to go?

• Police? Fire? Medical? All three?

• Is it even in our jurisdiction?

• And if it’s moving, where is it headed?

The brain is juggling a dozen threads before the caller finishes the first sentence. Every decision has weight. Every pause costs time. And through it all, the dispatcher has to speak: calm the caller, ask the next question, type the next line, route the call, push the data.

This is decision-making under pressure at its purest form.

Split-Second Judgment

Psychologists call it thin-slice judgment: making rapid, accurate choices based on limited cues. For dispatchers, it’s more than instinct. It’s trained intuition sharpened by repetition and focus.

It’s also situational awareness, but stripped of sight and context. Field responders can see a scene and adjust. Dispatchers must imagine it. They visualize through noise, silence, tone, breathing. They hold the picture in their head and keep updating it as new information appears. And they do it all in seconds.

The First Decisions Shape Everything

By the time the radio tones drop, the dispatcher has already made dozens of decisions that shape the rest of the response. The caller’s voice fades, but the incident keeps moving … carried forward by the clarity of those first few choices.

Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

It’s not just a motto. It’s how dispatchers meet every emergency, every single time the phone rings.