The Springville Police Department would like to congratulate dispatcher Anna Whitehead Melton with St. Clair County Central Dispatch for receiving the Alabama APCO Award of Excellence for consistently exceeding expectations in emergency communications. Also,...

Public safety communications on the East End got a $1.75 million shot in the arm yesterday from the Suffolk County Legislature.
Legislators unanimously approved bonding and the appropriation of bond proceeds to fund a communications system upgrade that will allow law enforcement agencies and first responders on the East End to communicate with each other and the county police department on the same radio frequencies.
The project provides long-sought communications “inter-operability” for the various law enforcement and public safety agencies on the East End and with county public safety dispatchers — something officials have been working toward since 2001.
It also will provide consistent “portable coverage” with hand-held radios, which officers use when they are out of their vehicles. Currently coverage for hand-held radios is spotty in many locations on the East End, which puts the lives of police officers and the pubic they serve at risk, County Legislator Bridget Fleming said yesterday.
The project funded yesterday will cover the costs of a new communication tower structure, communications and technology equipment in Jamesport. The site has not yet been finalized, according to Legislator Al Krupski’s office.
Future communications upgrades slated for the East End include sites in Eastport and Southampton, Suffolk County Police Department communications director Mike Postel told the legislature’s public safety committee members.
“This is a life and death situation that’s been going on many years on the East End,” Fleming said.
Southampton Town Police Chief Steven Skrynecki and Sag Harbor Police Chief Austin McGuire spoke in favor of the project at yesterday’s general meeting of the legislature.
McGuire, who is vice president of the East End Police Chiefs Association, told legislators the association supports the effort, which has been in the works since the months following the September 11 terrorist attacks, which highlighted inter-operability deficiencies among law enforcement agencies.
“This will provide seamless communications between county police, other police agencies and first responders,” McGuire said.
Skrynecki agreed. The agencies on the East End operate on different frequencies, the chief said, because they lack the infrastructure to support unified communication.
“This will support that infrastructure and allow us to all operate on the same frequencies,” Skrynecki said.
“It’s very, very critical to public safety as well as the safety of the officers involved,” he said.
The Riverhead Police Department already uses the county radio system, and the Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps just upgraded its communication system to one that communicates with the county system — but other East End police departments and first responder agencies are on still using other systems.
The communications project will give the East End Drug Task Force the ability to interface with all the East End police departments, Craig Pavlik of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office told legislators.
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911 operator at Logan City Public Safety Dispatch. The staff answered an average of 371 calls a day last year (Will Feelright).

A Sandoval County dispatcher has seven monitors to watch last week. The dispatchers preferred not to have their faces in the paper. Gary Herron photo.
A sticker in a goodie bag says it all: “Heroes wear headsets.”
Those headset-wearing heroes are the men and women taking emergency calls and dispatching law enforcement, fire and/or emergency medical help to those callers.
Last week (April 11-17) was National Public Safety Telecommunications Week. The Contra Costa (Calif.) County Sheriff’s Office started it in 1981, and in 1994, then-President Bill Clinton signed Presidential Proclamation 6667, declaring the second week of April as NPSTW.
It’s the time to celebrate and thank telecommunications personnel across the nation who serve communities, citizens and public safety personnel 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to npstw.org.
It wasn’t one of those Hallmark holidays that requires a card sent to your favorite dispatcher, although a cake, goodie bags and more were delivered to those front-line first responders in the Sandoval County Regional Emergency Communications Center (SCRECC) at the Rio Rancho Police headquarters on Quantum Drive.
“People here (in the county) have shown their appreciation,” said Randy Vallejos, with well over two decades in the field, who oversees dispatch operations here.
The SCRECC dispatchers take care of nine Sandoval County law enforcement agencies and 17 fire and emergency medical services departments. Six supervisors oversee 35 dispatchers, and the call volume averages about 310,000 calls annually.
Their work isn’t seen by others, but they take stressful calls — and play a vital role behind the scenes.
“The profession has changed over the years,” Vallejos said. “(Dispatchers) hear anything from a bump on the head to somebody hanging.”
Recently, he said, one of his dispatchers talked a couple through the birth of their child, on the side of a highway.
“Today’s dispatchers operate a lot differently than in the past,” he said, and he’s proud of the fact that many of them stay on the job a long time.
“If they stay three years (after being hired), we’ve got them,” he said. “When I got here, there was a lot of tenure — some had been here 10-15 years.”
Vallejos said five new dispatchers begin working at the SCRECC on May 3; he’ll have two vacancies after that.
“We appreciate their work; they help keep us safe on the front lines,” said RRPD Lt. Richard Koschade. “They are our lifeline for the officers — we couldn’t do our job without them.”
Vallejos said SCRECC has state-of-the-art equipment, including the latest in CAD (computer-aided dispatching).
The job requires about eight months of training, and those going through it get the opportunity to hear actual calls.
“This job is not for everyone,” said Vallejos, who has spent the past 2½ years in Rio Rancho. “It takes a toll on people — they listen to everyone’s worst day.”
Vallejos said he looks for critical thinkers who can multi-task, know how to type fast, have a willingness to serve and are prepared to undergo background checks and employment history — and then an interview by a panel — to be considered for a dispatching job.
“This is customer service,” he said, and must be considered a career or profession, not merely a job. Any age or gender may apply.Shifts may last as long as 14 hours, with a 10-hour shift the norm.
“People value 911 operators — until first responders get on the scene,” he said, so it’s nice to get recognition and be appreciated for what led to that emergency response that may have saved a life.
During the pandemic, he said, his department has striven for workplace safety — dispatchers are masked — and sanitization. He has stressed the importance of employees coming to work “every single day,” with the knowledge that protocols, set by the City of Rio Rancho, seemed to change frequently.
“I had COVID,” Vallejos said. “I was hospitalized and the whole deal.”
Still, his dispatchers were frequently checking up on him and he couldn’t wait to get back to work.
“I love this week, even though it’s just one week,” he said. “We’re doing good things.”
Tips for parents:
Vallejoes said parents should make sure children know their address and phone number, and where their parents (or grandparents) work.
“Location, location, location,” he said, is vital.
“(Dispatchers) do get calls from 4- and 5-year-old kids,” he said.

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