An eight-hour work day is an easy day in the life of Steven Sharp.

Sharp works a full 40-hour week as a police dispatcher for the Gardendale Police Department. His shift is from 6:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.

After he ends his shift, Sharp hurries to open Two Wheel Customs, a motorcycle and ATV accessory shop in Pinson. He opens the store at about 3 p.m. and closes at around 9 or 10 p.m. He has Wednesday and Thursday off from his dispatcher job, and he keeps the store open from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“I literally work seven days a week,” said Sharp.

He started working as a dispatcher for 13 years.

“Typically people think dispatchers answer a phone call and dispatch it to an officer, and that’s it,” said Sharp. “But there’s a lot more to it. An officer deals with one call, but a dispatcher has four or five things at once. It can be very stressful at times.”

Sharp just completed a mandatory customer service class for all city employees, and said he feels his job is like customer service.

“When a citizen comes in for something, they’re your customer. It’s up to us to help them with their problem and to provide, to the best of our ability, good customer service,” he said.

Dispatchers are also in charge of caring for the prisoners.

“You have to have an open mind to figure out what they’re needing. When they ask for something, they’ll ask for it in a different way than most people do,” said Sharp. “You need to have a little bit of sensitivity about you to be able to help them. They’re still human. You can’t just throw them back there and say ‘there you are’.”

Sharp said he likes his dispatcher job because he has communication with the public and he gets to help them with their problems.

He said he opened his motorcycle and ATV store because he has a passion for small engines, and he also likes to keep his ATV in top condition for hunting.