Thank you for your service, Public Safety Dispatchers! I saw this bulletin in my Nixle from the Petaluma Police Dept. I thought it was worth repeating.

The week of April 14 - 20, 2019, is "National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week." This is an opportunity to honor the women and men who serve as our Public Safety Dispatchers. Telecommunicators week began in California in 1981 and quickly grew to national recognition. Just ten years later, Congress designated the second full week of each April as a time to remember the critical role Dispatchers play in keeping us all safe.
 

Dispatchers are the voice at the other end of the 9-1-1 call assisting a distraught caller and at the other end of the radio when police, firefighters, and medical personnel are responding to emergency situations. If you've ever been the victim of a crime, been in a collision, reported a fire or needed emergency medical help, you've called 9-1-1 and been helped by a Telecommunicator, also known as a "Dispatcher."
 

Not being visible or always recognized in the public eye, the critical role they play between the community and first responders is essential for every public safety call for service. Our Dispatchers are the direct link to our officers in the field. They monitor the radios, computers, phones, and more, answering thousands of calls from our community each year.
 

Please join us in this week as we say THANK YOU to the often heard but not seen, first of the first responders, our 9-1-1 Dispatchers.