National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Police Officers, Fire Fighters, and E.M.T’s put their lives at risk regularly to keep the community safe. However, it’s the dispatchers who act as the lifeline for those Public Safety Officials.

April 9, 2017 through April 15, 2017 is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, which officially started in a California Sheriff’s Office back in 1981. Now all officials take the time to say thank you to their dispatchers.

Photo By: Quay DeVoll

“I don’t think we could do it without them,” Zanesville Police Department’s Chief Tony Coury said. “We have ten dispatchers or we try to keep a staff of ten dispatchers and everything they do and everything they get is very vital for us on the street. Our officers rely on them to get the most accurate information that they can get.”

Chief Coury said the dispatchers have to keep their own emotions and the callers emotions controlled so they can get all the information that’s needed. Amy Patrick is one of the day time dispatchers for Zanesville and she said the work has changed a great deal since she first started, but she’s always felt the same way about her work.

“I just like helping people and I like everybody I work with,” said Patrick. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was 18. I was going to go to college, but I got this job and been here ever since. Sometimes it’s scary and stressful, but it’s worth it.”

For more information on National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, you can visit the official event website, npstw.org.