Shaaron Claridge
Shaaron Claridge [
1], now retired, was a second-shift
radiotelephone operator or
police radio
dispatcher at the Van Nuys Division of the
Los Angeles Police Department. Women were primarily desired as police radio dispatchers because LAPD Psychologists thought that women's voices would have a more soothing and calming effect over the airway. The idea was that should an officer (male) have been pinned down, or wounded, yet was still within radio contact, hearing the female dispatcher's tone would help keep the officer from panicking until back-up arrived. For a time from the late 1960s into the 1970s she was a
voice actor credited with providing police dispatch voice work for
Adam-12,
Dragnet, and a few other shows for actor-director
Jack Webb's production company Mark VII. Her husband was an
LAPD motorcyle officer.
Her voice work as the police dispatcher ("1-Adam-12, 1-Adam-12, see the man . . .") was featured in all but one or two episodes of that series. She also had a cameo appearance in the fifth season episode "Suspended."
