After 31 Years, Lewis County 911 Dispatcher Hangs Up Her Headset

If you have called 911 within Lewis County in the last 31 years, there is a reasonable chance you have talked with Davene Rodocker.

Rodocker is a supervisor for Lewis County 911 Communications and has been a part of the staff since 1989. In her 31 years of experience answering the lines at the Lewis County 911 Communications Center — from harrowing life-threatening emergencies to the utterly ridiculous phone calls — Rodocker has just about heard it all.

“I love my career, I still love it after all this time,” Rodocker said. “I know I’m serving a purpose.”

But in September, she will call it a career.

The Chronicle sat down with Rodocker to hear what 31 years of being a point of contact for emergency situations in Lewis County was like, how she plans to advocate for other 911 dispatchers while in retirement and what else life has in store for her when she hangs up the headset.

Rodocker was introduced to the prospect of working as a 911 dispatcher when her ex-husband was a police officer, and naturally, other law enforcement officers would frequent their house for social events.

It was in 1989 at one of these social events when the wives of several police officers, some of which were already 911 dispatchers, suggested that she give the profession a try.

Initially, it was a hard pass for Rodocker.

“I don’t want to be that responsible for someone else’s safety,” she recalls thinking.

But the director of Lewis County 911 Communications at the time, Randy Pennington, was able to talk her into taking the job.

Perhaps Rodocker thought she would get more comfortable with the responsibility that comes with her work, but after 31 years of taking 911 calls, she has realized it isn’t a profession you ever truly get comfortable with.

“You never know what’s going to be on the other line of the telephone or the radio,” Rodocker explained. “Is it going to be someone you know? Is it going to be one of your officers? … you’re always on edge.”

One of the calls that Rodocker looks back on fondly was a life-threatening CPR call that she responded to.

“The man was calling for his mother and I was trying to get him to do CPR but he kept praying,” Rodocker recalled. “I said, ‘Sir, I am going to pray for you, I want you to do CPR for me.”

Rodocker, a fellow christian, prayed for the man’s mother while the man performed CPR. The woman ended up living and about a week later, a man approached her near the 911 Communications office in the Lewis County Courthouse.

She remembers the man saying, “I just wanted to thank you for saving my mother’s life. The ER doctor said if it wasn’t for you, my mother wouldn’t be here.”

The anecdote was one of many that have accumulated over 31 years, but some of the stories could be characterized as ridiculous rather than an emergency — like the time she got a call on a Friday evening from an individual complaining about traffic on Interstate 5.

Rodocker’s daughter, Kendra Schray, recollects in 2001 when the Nisqually earthquake hit, her mother had the day off. Despite having the day off and being in the midst of a natural disaster, Rodocker went into the 911 Communications Center to handle the influx of calls while other courthouse employees were pouring out.

“That’s just the kind of woman she is,” Schray said in a matter of fact tone.

Looking back on her career, Rodocker says the moments that could be viewed as heroic aren’t what stand out to her the most, rather, being able to inspire others to enter her line of work is what she hangs her cap on.

One of the individuals she inspired was Tiffany Johnson, a 911 dispatcher for Cowlitz County, who is a childhood friend of Schay and got a close look at the ins and outs of the job during their childhood.

“It always intrigued me how dedicated she was all the time with her job,” Johnson said. “I actually did my senior project on 911 dispatchers … she was always so inspiring.”

As Rodocker is winding down her career, she plans to use some of her free time advocating for 911 dispatchers, who she says are often considered to be outside of the criminal justice umbrella, which is a crime in and of itself in her eyes.

She likes to refer to 911 dispatchers as “headset heroes” and her goal through her advocacy is to get more people to recognize that “headset heroes” are most certainly under the criminal justice umbrella.

She doesn’t just want 911 dispatchers to be recognized under the criminal justice umbrella for the title, she says there are financial and health factors that play into it as well.

As Rodocker explains it, a police officer can retire after 20 years of service because it is recognized that there’s an immense physical and emotional toll that comes with the job.

Well, from a mental health perspective, there is a similar toll on a 911 dispatcher, except they do not have the opportunity to retire after 20 years, Rodocker said.

“We have the same adrenaline dumps that somebody that physically — such as an officer — responds to a scene,” Rodocker said.

Rodocker considers herself lucky to be retiring after 31 years of service, and knows not every dispatcher will be afforded the same luxury.

Despite being in love with her line of work, she said she knows it is not healthy for her mental health.

To ease her mind more in retirement, Rodocker said she plans on attending all of the family gatherings that she would have had to miss in the past because of her obligation to work.

Her biggest retirement plan: taking her 90-year-old dad down to Alabama, where he originally hails from, with her uncle in a motor home that she recently purchased so he can visit his sister.

“I wish her the best in her retirement, she deserves so much praise and recognition from Lewis County, for what she has contributed,” Christy Nelson, a friend of Rodocker’s, wrote to The Chronicle. “The best part of retirement will be no more 12 hour shifts with missed lunches, because you can’t place 911 on hold.”