This mom and daughter are on the other end of the call in Charlotte’s worst moments
Friday morning at the 911 call center in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police headquarters was a somber time. A chaplain comforted the call operators, one of whom was particularly distraught.
Minutes earlier, a call came in that a 3-year-old boy had been shot and killed in southwest Charlotte. The entire office mourned his loss.
This wound was still raw when telecommunicators Sayida Thorpe and her mother Aujiena “Gina” Hicks sat down for an interview with The Charlotte Observer. The pair were recently featured by CMPD for National Telecommunicators Week during the second week of April.
Every day as a 911 operator is different and you never know what’s going to be on the opposite end of the phone, Hicks and Thorpe say. Sometimes it causes them to question what humanity has come to, Thorpe said.
“We are human in that room and sometimes the calls you get are very disheartening,” Hicks said through tears. She arrived at work just after the 911 about the 3-year-old’s death. Police arrested the boy’s father hours later and charged him with involuntary manslaughter and failure to secure firearm from a minor.
Thorpe and Hicks said they each began working as 911 operators to serve their community. Thorpe joined CMPD as a call operator in 2019 and Hicks, following in her daughter’s footsteps, started in August.
Hicks, 53, was a candidate for sheriff in last year’s Mecklenburg County election. She worked at the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office in a variety of roles for over 18 years.
She says she has traded one career in law enforcement for another. She decided to try working as a telecommunicator because she considered herself too old to be on the front lines of law enforcement and too young to retire.
Thorpe said their family has always been involved in law enforcement and to apply to be a 911 operator was a “no-brainer.” She said she loves her job, the camaraderie in the office, and her ability to serve her community.
“We’ve always been community-driven people. We want to make sure that we are helping (in) any capacity,” Thorpe said.
The worst moments
When people call 911 they are often experiencing the worst moments of their lives, Hicks said. So to be able to provide them with the help they need and to help keep them calm is important.
“You are calming that storm that they are in, in that moment,” Hicks said.
Hicks has already had some difficult calls, Thorpe has had more. The two support each other as best as they can during the bad days, whether by call or text, or sitting next to each other in the office.
Shortly after taking on her role at CMPD, Hicks received one call that stuck with her.
“One of the worst calls I ever got was a seven-year-old that was performing CPR on his dad,” Hicks said. “And I wondered in that moment, ‘Hey is this for me?’”
Late last month, she received another disturbing call. A husband had just shot his wife in the head, they had a 2-year-old together and Hicks had to stay on the line as he described the gruesome scene before him.
“You never get used to it. I don’t ever want to become numb to it,” Hicks said. “That would be cold and callous, this is humanity that we’re serving.”
Thorpe’s first week on the job, nearly four years ago, she experienced one of the most difficult calls she has ever had to field. She cried as she recounted the story.
A man called 911 to explain in detail how he molests children, she said. She had to keep him on the phone while he drove around for more than an hour as police attempted to locate him. Officers never found him, she said.
“Some days it’s kinda like there’s no humanity. We handle it. We try to handle it as best we can especially when we’re taking the calls but some days it’s like, well what has the world come to,” Thorpe said.
‘Service is what we do’
Despite the disheartening calls and the bad days, Hicks and Thorpe are both passionate about their jobs.
“I am loving it,” Hicks said. “Service is what we do.”
CMPD has struggled with staffing shortages recently. Late last year, CMPD told WSOC, the Observer’s news partner, it was short 20 telecommunicators out of 126 available positions. Police also said more people than before are calling 911.
Hicks and Thorpe said their advice to anyone who is thinking about becoming a 911-operator is to “come on” and to also make sure they are taking the job for the right reasons. This isn’t a “for money” kind of job, Thorpe said.
“You have to have the heart, have to have compassion, and you have to have the will to serve to your fullest capacity,” Thorpe said.
