GREEN COVE SPRINGS – They sit in darkness, not knowing if the next time the telephone rings it will result in another layer of emotional hardness or a routine dispatch that will be forgotten as soon as they hang up.

At the Clay County Sheriff’s Office Communications Department, dispatchers are expected to retain memories of each call only for its duration. But they are human. Some are more personal than others. Emotions can’t be controlled as easily as flipping a light switch.

“If you walk in here and you have no idea, you start hearing the things that we're dealing with and you're like, it's just not normal,” said CCSO Lt. Anne Antoniello. “It's not normal. You don't know. I think it’s hard for a lot of younger kids who don't have life experience dealing with anything to try to help a person on the phone when you can't put yourself in the situation. It's easier if you have been there, done that, or dealt with it before lending a hand. People call at their worst moment.

“We make it look easy, but most people can’t do this.”

Some days are routine at the call center. Dispatchers take calls about noisy neighbors and arguments. Make that a lot of arguments. They’re called about car crashes, missing people, shoplifters, robberies, shootings and murders.

The sheriff’s office responds to many “disputes” calls every day. Some end with arrests for domestic violence, although most of them wind up being dropped when the victim decides to drop charges after the arrest.

Dispatchers often hear the anguish in the caller’s voice. It’s made them immune to some of the human suffering.

“I've learned to turn it off and just go on about my day,” Antoniello said.

Lt. Anne Antoniello has been with the Clay County Sheriff's Office for 24 years.

STAFF PHOTOS BY DON COBLE

Dispatchers have their ways of coping with the tragedy of their 12-hour shifts. Antoniello said she goes directly to the gym to work out. Sarah Lipe, a 28-year veteran of the call center, said her 45-minute drive to Starke helps her decompartmentalize the inhumanity of the day.

Most dispatchers agree that the most challenging calls involve children.

“Depending on their age, we have to send all the resources,” Antoniello said. “Everyone's going to go if they're 12 and under. If there's any kind of mental incapacitation, anything like that, if they've been diagnosed with autism or anything like that, we're going to send everybody. That's it for adults, too.

“I have days that when you go home, you're just emotionally drained.”

Lipe said it took her five years to separate her work from her home life. She admits, it’s still not easy to leave Clay County’s sometimes heartbreaking call list behind.

“There are times I sit in silence, and when I get home, I don’t remember the drive home,” Lipe said.

Sarah Lipe said it took her five years to learn to separate her work and her private life. However, she admitted some shifts are so difficult, "I don’t remember the drive home."

STAFF PHOTOS BY DON COBLE

Lipe said it took her five years to learn how to separate her work from her personal life. Early in her career, she took the burdens of her calls, both good and bad, out of the office. It was difficult not to think about the anguish of a mother’s voice or the reality of when hope turns into tragedy.

“It’s important to have a strong support system, whether it's family or friends,” Lipe said. “You just learn how to compartmentalize things.

“There's the road I live on. A woman that I knew, and her husband, were burned to death in a park. She crashed, and I took the call 25 years ago. But anytime I drive past there, which is daily, I can relive the entire call, from the time I answered the call to the last firefighter. It's just like, I don't dwell on it. It doesn't live there in my mind. But when I pass by there, I can replay the whole thing.”

“I've learned to turn it off and just go on about my day,” Antoniello said. “I mean, we might have a bad call, but then the next call's, maybe not as bad. But just as important as whoever's calling, so you kind of just move on to the next one, and then that one just fades away.”

Dispatchers rely on each other for support. They also know it’s essential to remain calm, no matter the crisis.

“You have to be calm, and you don’t tell the caller to be calm,” Antoniello said. “Have you ever seen anyone get calm when you tell them to be calm?”

Dispatchers at the Clay County Sheriff's Office rely on each other for support. They said the most difficult calls are those involving children.

STAFF PHOTOS BY DON COBLE

An example of that was in the early morning hours of Aug. 4, when a 911 dispatcher took a call from 14-year-old Trevor Lee. He called to say he had shot his parents, David and Brandi Lee, to death in their Middleburg bedroom. He walked to CrossPointe Church on Fleming Island and told her he was waiting for CCSO to pick him up. The dispatcher had a relaxed conversation with the teen, including offering to pray for him, until deputies arrived. Her soothing words seemed to help defuse what started as a volatile situation.

Trevor Lee has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and will be tried as an adult.

“I always check on everybody after there's a call,” Antoniello said. “You want to make sure if they need anything, if they need a minute to step out, if they need to talk to somebody, you can talk to me, somebody else, anything.”

Lipe said she’s often amused to hear people talk about cases, especially when they don’t know all of the facts.

“You hear such a different view from the general public,” she said. “They’re going to get secondhand information. They don’t get to live those calls.”

Or carry the burdens after they hang up.