News & Events

Spokane 911 Call Center

Description: This is an ongoing deployment with this agency. Three teams visited during the month of April: Debbie/Kutya: April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 Bob/Bella: April 6, 13 Karen/Sonny: April 20 The center provides contact information for the teams to call when they arrive. Temperatures are usually taken and everyone wears masks. Teams interact with operators one-on-one. Depending on the charge person sometimes the teams are led through the building and other times they are allowed to engage operators as they are wanted. Teams visits lasted from 30-45 minutes. The person in charge is more likely to tag along with the team if they haven't visited before. The teams have expressed that they are comfortable with the precautions being taken and they are able to maintain social distance in the stations. They sometimes also visit with administrative staff in their offices/cubicles and again are able to maintain social distance. We had been unable to visit due to COVID for 4 months and the teams said that the operators and workers were excited to see the dogs again. The HOPE teams engage with anywhere from 15-20 operators depending on time of day, many of whom are veterans. One team said the people working were thrilled to see Sonny because they were having a tough day with a change in their computer system so he was able to relieve some of that stress. Another team said one operator was very interested in learning about the training Bella went through to become a HOPE dog. We have more visits set up for May. We have received very positive feedback from the coordinator about these visits.