PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell is expected to address Punta Gorda’s City Council on Wednesday over a controversial county take-over of the city’s 911 center.
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — If you’re lucky enough to get a tour of Hall Ambulance’s new dispatch center in downtown Bakersfield, keep an eye on seven-year veteran dispatcher Julianne Solano.
Emergency calls that would likely raise the blood pressure and heart rate in the best of us show Solano speaking clearly, accurately, with care and empathy — and with no sign of even a tremor in her voice.
240 million—that’s approximately how many calls are made to 9-1-1 in the U.S. each year*, and the total keeps growing.
Given that there are only 5,748 primary and secondary Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) nationwide, that’s a lot of calls for the human operators to handle.
During the week of April 13 through April 19, Deschutes County will be celebrating National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week (NPSTW) to raise awareness of the invaluable work done by Deschutes 9-1-1, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We seem to always focus on those resources that respond to the scene with the lights and sirens, but we often forget about the Dispatchers who are the first ones to get the call and often try to make sense out of frantic voices on the other end of the line. Without the skills of the Public Safety Telecommunicator, none of the subsequent efforts would be possible.
