Utah 911 dispatcher turns photos into sketches during graveyard shifts

Utah 911 dispatcher turns photos into sketches during graveyard shifts

(Amber Rock)


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Editor's note:KSL.com does a weekly feature on artists in the community. If you have a painter, sculptor, musician or creative genius in mind, feel free to email your submission to atreasure@ksl.com. Please include a contact email for the artist, if available.LINDON — Amber Rock is a local 911 dispatcher who, during the quiet hours of a grave shift, finds time to sketch meaningful drawings for others.

Rock, a Lindon resident, mother of four, runner, and artist, is also an integral part of the emergency response system. For the last five years, she has worked as a dispatcher at Utah Valley Dispatch Special Service District where she helps dispatch more than 20 agencies — including police, fire, medical, as well as specialty teams.

These dispatchers work hard to stay collected when people on the other end of the phone are panicked or frightened. They calmly extract critical information from these people before alerting any agency that needs to respond.

“We usually have seven to eight dispatchers on at a time, (generally four of us on radios, and the rest of us answering phones). This job can be extremely stressful, but rewarding,” Rock said. “The summer months can be exhausting, handling multiple search and rescues, fires, ATV accidents, or even a stranded boater on Utah Lake.”

But during the “quiet” hours of the grave shifts she often works, she finds downtime to decompress and focus on turning photographs into graphite sketches for people.

“I mostly draw people because I love capturing their personalities, or features. ...I recently sketched the hands of my mom and her mother, together, before she passed away from cancer,” Rock said. “I've even had different requests, one being an image that came from a dream, or a sketch of an incident that impacted their life but was never photographed. I love being able to convey an image through a sketch that can give more meaning or feeling than a photo.”

A half-finished portrait by Amber Rock. (Photo: Amber Rock)
A half-finished portrait by Amber Rock. (Photo: Amber Rock)

Rock was born in Pocatello, Idaho, but raised mostly in Utah. She said her interest in art began in elementary school and she experimented with various mediums until she landed on graphite as her preferred medium. Now, that choice of medium means she can pull out her pencils and sketch pad to make something special — like an image of an uncle — when the phone stops ringing.

“My favorite sketch is one I've done of my dad and his brother, together. His brother passed away a couple of years ago, and he didn't have any good recent photos,” she said. “I was able to sketch a better image than the blurry picture he had, and gave it to him for Christmas. He barely had the present unwrapped when he realized what it was and began crying. His reaction is what really got me. That piece is very special to me.”

See her art on Facebook.com .


![Celeste Tholen](http://img.ksl.com/slc/2588/258877/25887704\.jpg?filter=ksl/65x65)
About the Author: Celeste Tholen --------------------------------

Celeste is the former Deputy Managing Editor at KSL.com and now works in marketing. She spends most of her spare time balancing conflicting interests in the outdoors and movies/television.You can follow Celeste on Twitter: @CelesteTholen

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