Unseen First Responders Recognition

MUSKINGUM COUNTY, Ohio- It’s National Public Safety Telecommunicators week and the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office recognizes all the hard work their telecommunicators do. 

Dispatchers are the first line of communication when they receive an emergency call. While you may not see them, they play a vital role.

“Everybody talks about the first responder, but we are the first responder. If we don’t get that call or we don’t get that information out to the actual responders, then there is no first response,” MCSO Dispatch Supervisor Rick Creeks said.

Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz started out as a dispatcher at 20 years old. He said he believes it’s the most important job and is proud of his great team and dispatch center. 

“They’re the lifeline to all our people and when we’re going on calls, it’s really important, they do such a great job of extracting information from people and giving our officers, especially in the day’s time, everything they need to be able to go safely handle that call,” Sheriff Matt Lutz said.

Lutz said when you call dispatch, they are multitasking by gathering all the information they need while getting the help en route to you within seconds. He said being polite and respectful on a call will help out the dispatchers.