Carrie Sanders HAVE YOU BEEN IDENTIFIED? Hidden boundary work in emergency services classifications Information technologies, such as the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, have fundamentally changed workplace protocols. This paper examines the impacts that the standardized processes associated with the CAD system have on the labour of 9-1-1/police call-takers. Through an analysis of the labour of 9-1-1/police call-takers and their processes for classifying emergency call(er)s, we are able to uncover the negotiated labour between human and machine. It is argued throughout the paper that the standardized processes of the CAD system do not remove the social from call-taking but instead emphasize the use of the social as a resource for classifying call(er)s. The present analysis illustrates how emergency classification is not a standardized process but instead an actively constructed virtual image performed in real space and time by call- takers. It is the call-takers’ tacit knowledge and ability to work across the virtual, abstract and material worlds that makes them essential players in emergency response. Keywords Emergency response; information technology; standardization; classification and boundary work Introduction Over the past decade there has been increased demand for the use and implementation of information technologies in the workplace. This increased demand has been the result of claims that information technology, such as the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, creates and maintains social order within organizations (Manning 1988; Star 1995; Berg 1997). This paper exam- ines 9-1-1 call-taking and its standardized processes to uncover the hidden and negotiated labour performed by 9-1-1 call-takers. While Adacan’s emergency organization has implemented information technologies, such as the CAD system, to standardize work practices, it is argued here that these Information, Communication & Society Vol. 9, No. 6, December 2006, pp. 714 – 736 ISSN 1369-118X print/ISSN 1468-4462 online # 2006 Taylor & Francis http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/13691180601064048