Sheriff’s office notes National Public Safety Telecommunications Week

The week of April 12-18 is designated as “National Public Safety Telecommunicator Week,” and while the Boundary County Sheriff’s Office strives to show appreciation for employees on a daily basis, BCSO officials said the week is set aside especially to recognize the hard work of our 911 emergency dispatchers.

The week is designated to recognize them for all that they do in their vital role in helping ensure the public are safe, but also for looking out for Law Enforcement Officers, Fire Fighters, Emergency Medical personnel and the many other persons whom they dispatch, sheriff’s office officials said in a press release.

“Our county dispatchers are constantly learning and implementing new procedures, protocols and technologies, especially in this rapidly changing world that we are now living in,” officials said in the release. “New procedures are normally implemented with ample time to learn the new process, but during this COVID-19 pandemic new adjustments to routine processes have been happening on the fly in some cases. Emergency dispatchers must be flexible and adaptable to provide the best service possible, and they have seen very rapid changes come to what was already demanding work.”

“Years ago, I was told not everyone can do this type of work and that sticks with me every minute of every day,” Crystal Denton, Boundary County’s 911 administrator, said. “Dispatchers are so very unique in the way that they care for their communities and everyone they work with. They are the calm in the night when you make maybe that once-in-lifetime 911 call.”

Denton praised the county’s hard-working dispatchers.

“They are the thin gold line that holds the blue and red lines together,” she added. “ Let’s all rise up and show them that we all appreciate them for their dedication to the residents and to the emergency responders in Boundary County.”