By Zenji Nakazawa | Acting Chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau
Could you talk a distraught parent through delivering their baby and clamping the umbilical cord? What about guiding a lost, elderly person battling dementia and paranoia, along with her six-year-old grandson, out of the woods to safety? Now, imagine doing all of this over the phone, where every decision can mean the difference between life and death. This is just a glimpse into the extraordinary challenges our nation’s dedicated 911 telecommunicators face on any given workday.
During this year’s National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, I want to take a moment to recognize and celebrate our incredible 911 telecommunicators across the nation.
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.
Hawaii County’s new 17,127-square-foot Emergency Call Center in Hilo opened this week, housing dispatch operations for the Police and Fire departments.
“After decades of planning, we now have a state-of-the-art facility where our police and fire dispatchers can work side by side,” Mayor Kimo Alameda said Monday at the blessing ceremony. “This new Emergency Call Center represents a major investment in public safety and, importantly, supports the essential around-the-clock work of these dedicated professionals.”
The patrol officer shrieked as he radioed in his location. Other officers acknowledged they were on the way.
It was 1979 and I was training a new dispatcher to take my place in the radio room so I could move on to a patrol officer position. The new guy sat frozen beside me, his face pale and stiff.
VERONA, Va. (WHSV) – April 13-19 marks National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, which highlights the importance of 911 dispatchers for emergency situations.
A 911 call doesn’t go straight to a local fire or police agency. Rather, someone picks up the phone and asks some variation of “911, what’s your emergency?” The people who work in these call centers can have a variety of titles but are often referred to as “dispatchers.”
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.
Learn about current efforts to continue to protect the 4.9 GHz Band for public safety as well as recent filings, key decisions impacting these efforts, and how you can support PSSA’s initiative to protect the 4.9 GHz band for public safety.
