[ScanIndiana] Late & Great Dispatchers

[Terry & Nancy Hoover]

Hello All,
I saw an item come through re: dispatchers and some entertainment value.
Evansville was blessed with a golden piped dispatcher like Les Sanders there
was many a night when people were setting in backyards, around card tables
playing card ( No They Were not gambling thats illegal ) LMAF,  but there
were a lot of the old police radio's (tunable receivers) only 1 channel at a
time  and a few scanners out there.  Scanners were the new technology, the
old G.E. PRO 4 channel tunable scanner was my first scanner.

Well to make a long story short Les made monitoring famous in Evansville, as
long as EFD was quiet then we had to chose as who to listen to Les or EFD
decisions. as a boy I listened to Les dispatch a large "Jail Break" my
brother & I were just going to bed,  well that changed our plans we
monitored all night long.

Another kind of famous dispatcher was Floyd for Warrick County Sheriff, EMS
& fire, he almost always dispatched 3 shift and boy let me tell you, He had
a colorful way with dispatching I guess Warrick County was lucky that the
FCC field agents slept at night but he had a medical emergency while
dispatching on night and when he was found he had his hand on the local ems
unit's key pressed their dispatch tones kept going off over & over they knew
something was wrong and it was. Below you will find the Obituary Article I
found in the Evansville Courier for Les Sanders and yes Les Sanders is the
one who peaked my interest in scanning in 1970-71 or so Damn, There I go
showing my age again.
73's
Terry Hoover

Leslie Sanders was well-known officer


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By JOE ATKINSON, Courier & Press staff writer
(812) 464-7450 or atkinson@evansville.net


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The Evansville Police Department lost one of its most famous members Sunday
when legendary dispatcher Leslie E. Sanders died at the age of 84.

�It�s just like a part of history has been lost,� said Bob Pointer, a
sergeant in the police records room. �He was like someone we grew up with;
it�s like we lost our best friend.�

Sanders, who spent the last 12 years of his police career as a dispatcher,
retired from the force March 31, 1982. He served 31 years overall, including
eight on a patrol with former police chief Marvin Guest.

Members of the police force who served with Sanders, including current
Police Chief Dave Gulledge, said they remembered Sanders for his distinctive
on-air voice and personality.

Sanders� most noted line, however, was his famous sign-off, �KSA
niiiiiiiiiine three one,� Gulledge said.

�He was known all over the city for that; people with scanners would get on
and listen to Les,� Gulledge said. �If he was famous for anything, he was
famous for that.�

He also was respected among fellow officers, Pointer said, particularly for
his calm demeanor on the air.

�What we respected about him was he never got in a panicky state,� Pointer
said. �We often joked that there could be bombs going off and earthquakes,
and he would get in there calm as can be. He was just rock solid; he did not
get (shaken).�

Before making the switch to dispatch, Sanders was among the first black
officers to patrol all of Evansville.

Before he and his partner, William Cooksey, addressed the issue to
then-Capt. Ted Karges, black officers patrolled neighborhoods resided mainly
by blacks, and white officers patrolled neighborhoods resided mainly by
whites.

Sanders told The Evansville Courier when he retired that he never had any
problems with the public when the department integrated.

�We never had a bad reaction from the public � they were just happy to see
someone in a blue uniform coming to help,� Sanders said at the time. �The
problem was in the department.�

Later in his career, Sanders helped break in Guest, who later became police
chief and currently serves as deputy chief.

But the thing many of Sanders� fellow officers will remember most, Pointer
said, was the way he cared about his patrolmen when he worked dispatch. He
had the ability to remember where all of his officers were, and could tell
if an officer needed backup by the tone of his voice.

�He just really took care of us, and we really respected him for that,�
Pointer said. �He was really conscientious about what guys were doing.�


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