Area officials are recognizing Telecommunicators across the region and nation April 14th through the 20th during National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.
Officials with the Kentucky State Police say that these silent heroes of public safety are more than just a voice on the other end of the line, they often save lives on a daily basis. KSP telecommunicators, and all telecommunicators across various emergency agencies, are challenged on a daily basis and deal with stressful situations, many that involve life and death, and are expected to handle these situations with compassion, empathy and professionalism. Telecommunicators must be at their best while dealing with people who may be at their worst, those who have been victimized or need medical assistance, who may be threatening and belligerent, or not able to communicate at all.
Despite providing a lifeline for the public, telecommunicators are also extremely important to law enforcement and other emergency service professionals who rely on them for critical communications, information, and follow up to ensure that they remain safe from harm while out in the field.
KSP Public Affairs Commander Josh Lawson says that the agency employs 193 telecommunicators at its 16 posts throughout the state. He adds that in 2018, they handled 493,186 calls.
Post 2, which is located in Madisonville, has 9 telecommunicators that handle calls across the seven county service area that includes Caldwell, Christian, Crittenden, and Hopkins counties.
For Post 1, which is located in Mayfield, 19 telecommunicators handled more calls from an 11-county area, than any other post in the state and answer calls for over a dozen different emergency agencies across western Kentucky. In addition, KSP Post 1 is the public service answering point for all 911 calls in Lyon, Ballard, Hickman, Fulton, and Graves Counties.
Some of the duties of telecommunicators include calling wrecker services, notifying channels of administration, running license plate and driver’s license numbers, running criminal histories and notifying family members while continuing to answer new calls and handling other radio traffic.
For the rest of the week WPKY will continue to recognize our local and regional telecommunicators and invites the public to do the same.
