Honoring the FIRST first responders

The Saline County Sheriff's Office is honoring the men and women who answer emergency calls that are placed everyday, as part of National Telecommunicator Week.

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, according to a release from the Saline County Sheriff's Office.

In 2014, Telecommunicators dispatched 2,665 ambulance calls, 383 fire calls, 1,155 traffic accidents and nearly 2,484 9-1-1 hang-up calls. Over 58,000 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. Those include Saline County Sheriff's Office, Harrisburg Police Department, Galatia Police Department, Raleigh Police Department, Carrier Mills Police Department and the Eldorado Police Department.

Telecommunicators at Saline County Central Dispatch dispatch for 12 fire departments, Harrisburg, Eldorado, Carrier Mills, Stonefort, Galatia, Pope County, Equality, Ridgway, Omaha, New Haven, Old Shawneetown and Shawneetown; three ambulance providers, Saline County EMS, Med-Force EMS and Gallatin County EMS; and provide 911 services for Saline and Gallatin Counties. In addition, cellular 9-1-1 calls are - at times - received from Hamilton, Pope, Hardin, White, Williamson, Johnson and Franklin counties in Illinois as well as Union, Crittenden and Livingston counties in Kentucky and Posey County, Ind.

Telecommunicators in the past year have upgraded to a Next Generation 911 system as well and have the ability to receive and send 911 text messages. In the past telecommunicators handled calls ranging from a bank robbery, to falls and lost subjects at the Garden of the Gods. Other call handling events include severe weather and/or dispatching one of the three air-medical helicopters in our region, to name a few.

While many people never see the telecommunicator at the actual emergency, their job is just as stressful. 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 nine full time telecommunicators and two part time telecommunicators. They are Mike Davis, Steve Hollerson, Janice Edwards, Allison Wilson,

Beverly Dudley, Tammy Norris, Doug Cummins, Steve Douglas, Travis Parks, Phillip Bailey and

Nicole Stricklin.