People who serve in the public safety profession as a 911 dispatcher are caring, compassionate, and dedicated to help their community to protect the police officer’s medical personnel, and the fire fighters they dispatch for on a daily basis. Police officers want to protect and to serve the public in every way, and help prevent crime. Emergency Medical Technician’s, and Paramedics take care of people in all their medical need, as the Fire Fighters assist medical personnel, house or car fire’s, hazardous material calls and many more. You always see media articles about a fire fighter or a police officer that have achieved awards for a heroic acts that is required in their job profession each and every day it is very scare you see many articles or media clips about dispatchers.

The dispatchers are at the front lines when the disaster or tragedy starts and it is the dispatchers job to obtain as much information possible to keep everyone safe from harm and to best serve the public in whatever type of emergency they encounter. A lot of people think they only thing we do is sit at a console and talk on the radio, could they ever be so wrong. When you talk about doing 10 different things at one time you live the life as a 911 dispatcher, processing the calls as they come into your center dispatching the proper agencies, calling wrecker services, notify proper channels of administration, running drivers license, tags, running criminal histories, notify family members and many more depending on the emergency you are dealing with at the time.

The dispatchers on the coast found out what it was like when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast 2 years ago and several did not return because of the stress and the horrendous circumstances they were dealing with as their community was destroyed by the hurricane. Calls coming in people screaming for help, the town is in total lock down what can you do, stay on the phone with the caller and try to calm them until the hurricane passes. Several were loosing everything they owned and families left at home alone, while they were at their center doing the job they were trained for.

Imagine all the phone calls coming in at the world trade center to the dispatch centers, as the airplanes were hitting the twin towers and world trade center. Several of the 911 dispatchers was the last person the caller was to ever talk to, having a complete stranger tell you please tell my family I LOVE THEM. We do the job we are trained for.

Tragedy and Disaster strikes in many different ways to every one and every center or police department that we can ever imagine and we try to move on to the next day and do the job we are all trained for. However there are some days on the job when disaster strikes, no matter how much training you have, nothing can prepare you for the tragedy that happened to the dispatchers working on April 16, 2007 at the Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg Police Department, and Montgomery County 911 Center.

The fatal shootings that killed 32 innocent students at the Virginia Tech University was the worst fatal shootings in United States history. The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials APCO-MS Chapter would like to take this time to acknowledge each and every one for their exemplary professional conduct, ability and overall contribution to the field of public safety and emergency telecommunications.
Our thoughts and prayers are with each and every one of you as a fellow telecommunicator and the sorrow you have felt with the loss of friends and family members on campus. The APCO-MS Chapter would like to present all the dispatchers from the three agencies a plaque to say thank you for everything you have done and continue to do. Your courage to preserve when you feel unrecognized never loose sight of what is important in the midst of stress. Help us all to remember that we as dispatchers make a difference however small it may seem some days and that we matter.