Shaaron Claridge
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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 by gunfire and/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 at the scene. 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 motorcycle 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."
