For the rest of the week, towns, cities, and counties around southwest and central Virginia are celebrating the men and women who serve as 911 dispatchers, the unseen heroes of public safety.
According to the City of Roanoke, Congress proclaimed the second week of April as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in 1991.
Thirty years later, telecommunicators, dispatchers, and communications operators across the country not only answer hundreds of thousands of calls placed to 911 centers, but they also use phones, radios, and computers to offer support to law enforcement, firefighters, EMS workers, and other government field personnel.
Even though National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week runs from Sunday, April 11 through Saturday, April 17, numerous police departments, sheriff’s offices, fire departments, and rescue squads across the region have already posted celebratory and supportive messages for their dispatchers.