Sarah Hines is multi-lingual. English, of course. French. German. Japanese.
And, emergency dispatch.
When a red light flickers on, help is on the way.
All hours of the day and night at Island County Emergency Services Communications Center, a team of first responders dons headsets and waits before a veritable wall of computer monitors for a call of distress. These first responders are invisible at the scene of an emergency, but their steady voices are often the first ones to provide instruction and comfort to Island County residents facing dire situations.
This fall, the Seattle mayor’s office and city council have agreed to jointly create a new type of crisis response unit to be available when people call 911.
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors has appointed Michele A. Surdam, who has served Prince William County for more than 30 years, to be the new Director of the Prince William County Department of Public Safety Communications.
Two members of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office received statewide recognition during the the Virginia Sheriffs’ Association Annual Conference on Sept. 20 in Virginia Beach.
The VSA 2022 Dispatcher of the Year award was presented to Loudoun’s Molly Rau. She is assigned to the night shift at the Emergency Communications Center and has been a Sheriff’s Office employee for nearly three years. Rau is certified in crisis intervention training and is already a communications training officer.
ELIZABETHTOWN, N.Y. — Public safety workers and public officials in the tri-county area were mourning the unexpected death Monday of Essex County Emergency Services Director Max Thwaits III.
Thwaits, 40, of AuSable Forks, died of heart failure around 2 a.m. Monday at the University of Vermont Health Network Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh.
