National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week continues tradition of honoring 911 dispatchers
This week is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. Simply put, it is a week to honor those nationwide who take your 911 calls when you are in need.
Inside the Westmoreland County 911 Center, men and women are committed to giving their all while you are on the line.
Sometimes, just three numbers dialed on a phone can be the difference between life and death.
Telecommunications officers, or TCOs, field over 1,000 calls daily and dispatch crews across over 1,000 square miles of county land.
"No one calls 911 on a good day," said Gene Good, the 911 Operations Chief for the Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety. "People call 911 because it's their last resort. It might be a little old lady whose cat's stuck, to a fire, to someone in cardiac arrest, or a very young mother in labor. So, they are having a bad day, and our people deal with people having bad days, every day."
Through six months of intense training and working on sometimes-grueling 12-hour shifts, days at the center can be long and take a toll on the men and women there.
The job sees its fair share of turnover, but for those who stay, when asked, everyone, to a person, says that they are here to help their community.
"These individuals are truly the first, first responders," said Chief Good. "To gather the information needed to provide pre-arrival and post-dispatch instructions to callers when they call 911, before the emergency services arrive."
These men and women do everything from dispatching units to talking someone through a life-threatening situation, like having a heart attack.
The word 'hero' doesn't seem to be used enough when describing all that they do, so maybe that is why every April, the Department of Transportation names a week in honor of these first responders, both to recognize their contributions and offer a way for the public to say thank you.
To learn more about Westmoreland 911 or become a Westmoreland 911 telecommunications officer, click here.
