This week is National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, which sounds like a mouthful, but it's really a week to honor 911 dispatchers.
Before the ambulance, fire truck, or police car rolls out, it's the 911 dispatcher who talks to someone in an emergency.
"We have to calm them down so we can get good information," says Deb Wehmeier, Hamilton County Communications Supervisor. "We have to try to figure out what's going on so that we send the right people."
Getting a location for first responders is a priority for dispatchers, but Hamilton County Ambulance Service Director Cathy Sigler says dispatchers can give out life saving information too.
"If CPR is not started within four minutes the patient will not survive, and so for us the dispatcher talks through whoever is on the phone how to do CPR until we get there," says Sigler.
Officials say dispatchers will face new challenges in the future including systems that incorporate text messaging as a way to call for help.
"Eventually we will be able to accept text messages, we will also be able to accept video of what's going on, and we will be able to answer on a texting type system," says Wehmeier. "The technology is out there, it just isn't here yet to our office."
Dispatchers also often have to navigate language barriers so they can get callers the help they need.
Wehmeier says that since dispatchers don't go to the scene, it's often a thankless job, but she says praise isn't why they're there.
"It's what we do and we do it because we enjoy the work."
