ORANGE COUNTY, Texas — An Orange County Sheriff's Office dispatcher has hung up her headset after 32 years of service to Southeast Texas.
Dispatchers like Jackie Pickens are the first line of communication, making split second decisions under pressure.
Without them, first responders would be flying blind.
During her last shift, Pickens put out one last message to her team:
"Tonight I hang up my headset here at Orange County Sheriff's Office, even though y'all wont be in my ear, you will always be in my heart," she said.
Pickens says to be a dispatcher, you must be compassionate.
"You have to be compassionate to your callers, even if they're regulars and they call 10 times a week, you have to be compassionate on that phone to their need," she said.
Being a dispatcher became more than just a job for Pickens.
"It got into my blood, and I loved the helping folks, and keeping up with everybody, began to form a bond with the officers and stuff like that, and it just became a passion," she said.
Her voice was always on the other end, keeping the calm during fires, shootings, heart attacks and even births.
"It means a lot to have a good dispatcher on the other end of the line," said Orange County Detective Colton Havard
Before the sirens even come on, deputies are relying on dispatch.
"They wouldn't know what's going on where and how to get there, and who they're dealing with and the severity of the call, if they're gonna be in danger or not, that's where it all starts," Pickens said.
Havard says whenever Pickens was working, they knew she was always going to give accurate and reliable information.
Dispatchers work 12-hour shifts, handling emergency after emergency.
"During it, I have been known to bow my head in prayer, you might hear or see a silent prayer, hear me call upon the good Lord to help them, or the caller in the circumstances of what was happening," Pickens said.
For dispatchers like Pickens, the work never really ends.
"It became my life, other than my family, taking care of folks, I still to this day, if someone was to fall in the yard outside I'd be out there helping them," she said.
And of course, Pickens will miss her team and all the collaborative efforts they put in together to serve Southeast Texans in need.
"That bond you have with law enforcement, and fire and even EMS as well, you have that second family, and you want to be sure they are safe and taken care of," she said.
Pickens loves her job so much she's actually planning to work part time for a couple departments before she retires for good.
Her goal in the next few years is to move full time to a house out on the lake. She looks forward to more time on the boat and on the deer stand.
"You learn to deal with it as far as decompressing, I love to fish and hunt, I get in my boat or my deer stand and it's quiet, and that's where I decompress and let it be. You got to learn to leave it at the office if you can," Pickens said.