Saline County honors telecommunicators

SALINE COUNTY - The Saline County Sheriff's Office celebrated National Telecommunicator Week by sharing statistics that underscore the value of the county's telecommunicators.

In 2017, the county's telecommunicators dispatched 3,196 ambulance calls, 394 fire calls, 1,023 traffic accidents and nearly 2477, 911 hang-up calls. More than 57,000 items were logged of a police

nature. Telecommunicators, in addition to sending out emergency crews, also enter warrant arrests, missing person reports, stolen items and other items into a criminal database. A large amount of the calls are for routine assistance for the police departments that are served by Saline County Central Dispatch.

Telecommunicators at Saline County Central Dispatch provide dispatch service for 12 fire departments: Harrisburg, Eldorado, Carrier Mills, Stonefort, Galatia, Pope County, Equality, Ridgway, Omaha, New Haven, Old Shawneetown and Shawneetown; four ambulance providers, Saline County EMS, Med-Force EMS, Transcare EMS and Gallatin County EMS; and 911 services for Saline and Gallatin Counties.

In addition, cellular 911 calls are at times, are received from Hamilton, Pope, Hardin, White, Williamson, Johnson and Franklin counties in Illinois, plus Union, Crittenden and Livingston counties in Kentucky and Posey County, Indiana.

All Saline County telecommunicators are CPR/AED trained and are required to be Emergency Medical Dispatcher trained. The EMD certification allows the telecommunicator to provide instructions to callers prior to an ambulance arrival.

Telecommunicators at Saline County 911 have the ability to receive and send 911 text messages.

In the past telecommunicators handled calls ranging from delivering a baby to falls and lost people at Garden of the Gods. Other call handling events include severe weather and/or dispatching one of the two air-medical helicopters in our region.

"While many people never see the telecommunicator at the actual emergency, their job is just as stressful," Saline County 911 Coordinator Tracy Felty said. "Telecommunicators are always on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays and weekends. Telecommunicators are the 'first' first responders."

The Saline County Sheriff's Office has 10 full time telecommunicators and two part time telecommunicators. They are Mike Davis, Steve Hollerson, Janice Edwards, Tammy Norris, Doug Cummins, Steve Douglas, Travis Parks, Aundria Murphy, Mindy Taylor, Michele Gribble, Joseph Standeford and Nicole Stricklin.

National Telecommunicator Week was April 8 through 13.