Monday, March 31, 2008

Burleson celebrates National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week and 911 Education Month in April

By Pegasus News wire

BURLESON — They answer phones, monitor radio channels, dispatch calls, enter warrants, watch over the holding facility, prepare bond paperwork, monitor security cameras and the weather radar, and are responsible for logging a myriad of things, including a list of available wreckers.

It’s all in a day’s work for a Burleson telecommunicator. The month of April has been proclaimed National 911 Education Month. The week of April 13-19 is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. The Burleson City Council will recognize both with a proclamation at the Thursday, April 10, Burleson City Council meeting.

The Burleson Police Department has 11 telecommunicators and one supervisor. They include Communications Supervisor Lisa Pollard, Lead Telecommunications Operator/Communications Training Coordinator Karen Dawkins, Alarm Coordinator/Volunteer Firefighter/Telecommunications Operator Steve Haas, Telecommunications Operator/Communications Training Operators Desire Spruill and Dana Carey, Telecommunications Operator/9-1-1 Community Education and Events Coordinator Regina Schulter and Telecommunication Operators Trina Keeton, Phil Lewis, LaJean Whiteside and Katie Reynolds. Shelley Watson and Todd Genteman are in training.

Each year, the second week in April is dedicated to the telecommunicators. Congress made the National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week proclamation official in the early 1990s because the telecommunicators are the first point of contact, the unseen first responders, with the public. They are trained to be prepared for the unexpected and unimaginable.

The National 911 Education Month was endorsed by Congress in March 2008. National 911 Education Month is a national effort to educate children, seniors, and the general public about the importance of and the appropriate use of 911.

As a Colorado chief said in a tribute to dispatchers that has been posted on www.911dispatch.com, telecommunicators are therapists, doctors, lawyers, teachers, weathermen, guidance counselors, psychologists, priests, secretaries, supervisors, politicians and reporters. Telecommunicators are expected to have the “compassion of Mother Theresa, wisdom of Solomon, interviewing skills of Oprah Winfrey, gentleness of Florence Nightingale, patience of Job, voice of Barbra Streisand, knowledge of Einstein, answers of Ann Landers, humor of David Letterman, investigative skills of Joe Friday, looks of Melanie Griffith or Don Johnson, faith of Billy Graham, energy of Charo and the endurance of the Energizer Bunny.”

Two telecommunicators are assigned to each of three daily shifts in Burleson. In addition to answering the phone and monitoring radio channels, Burleson telecommunicators enter, clear and verify warrants, vehicles and license plates, and enter missing persons/runaways into the National Crime Information Center, Texas Crime Information Center, and regional databases. Telecommunicators prepare and complete jail paperwork, bond/fine paperwork and the money paid for the release of a prisoner; conduct 30-minute checks on prisoners in three cells, which have four beds in each cell; monitor 21 cameras (13 at the police department and nine covering water towers and the city service center); monitor weather radar when storms are approaching; run drivers licenses and license plates on every traffic stop; run criminal histories through the databases; and, maintain logs for criminal trespassing, the holding facility, wreckers, repossessions, private pulls, red-tagged vehicles, abandoned vehicles and the daily deposit.

“We are very proud of our telecommunicators,” Burleson Police Chief Tom Cowan said. “As patrol is the backbone of the police department, the telecommunicators are the nerve center. They do a remarkable job often under very stressful conditions. I believe the quote from the Colorado Chief is a perfect description, eloquently stated.”

Source: City of Burleson

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