Kochanowski Is February Responder Of The Week

news1@ulyssesnews.com

Police, fire and EMS are always there when you need them. But the unsung heroes not many people recognize are the first person they talk to when they call for help.

The dispatcher who takes the initial call is the true first responder.

Lori Kochanowski might not be a familiar face outside the local law enforcement community, but chances are good many who have “called the police” in Grant County have heard her voice.

Kochanowski has been a dispatcher in Grant County for 12 years, so when you call 911 here, it’s likely her voice is the one you’ll hear answer the call and her voice the responder – EMS, police, fire – will hear with directions to whatever the emergency is.

For her, the best part of the job is helping people. She’s done other jobs, but “Nothing ever clicked,” she said.

She’s been in law enforcement for 35 years, mostly dispatching with a few years as a warrants clerk and assistant in Saline County

Kochanowski started dispatching when she was 16 years old in Johnson and got into it through the Girl Scouts.

“I was in Girl Scouts and for our gold and silver leadership award, we worked at various places,” Kochanowski said. “We did well enough over there the sheriff said, ‘the girls are doing good, teach them to dispatch.’

“We had just been typing and doing stuff like that. There was another girl, and they taught us how to dispatch and we did well, so they hired us part time to cover vacations and weekends and summer until we graduated high school.”

She said the training wasn’t too extensive, and it wasn’t just working the radio.

“You had to learn the state system for running tags, and back then it was the old school like Plectron where you’d set off the pagers,” Kochanowski said. “You had to pass NCIC Certifications.”

The technology has vastly improved over the years.

“Back then we had radio logs and every time somebody said something we had to write down what they say, the time, write down the tag,” she said. “Now we’ve got CAD where we type it into a computer. Same premise just more upgraded.”

Aside from Grant and Stanton counties, Kochanowski worked in Garden City, and for the Kansas Highway Patrol State dispatch center in Salina, where she dispatched across the entire state. She had to learn the streets and geography of rural and urban counties across Kansas.

Here in Grant County, she works a rotating 12-hour shift schedule – three 12-hour days then one day off and three more 12-hour days before it flips to three days off, one day on and three more days off. Some days it’s the night shift and some days the day shift.

She said the better shift just depends on what’s going on.

“I’ve always been a night owl, so I like the night shift,” she said. “You might be busy until everybody goes home and then you’ve got time to do paperwork and get all your stuff done.

“Sometimes on day shift you have administrative calls, dog calls. It’s a different busy.”

Kochanowski has found her niche and plans to retire doing what she loves. She has a new grandchild in Hays and says her schedule allows her time to go see them.

Kochanowski is the first March Responder of the Month nominee and was nominated by Jodi Flores.

If you have Responder of the Week nominees, email news1@ulyssesnews.com or message us on Facebook Messenger.