MIAMI – The country’s public safety community is marking National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week during the second week of April, also National 9-1-1 Education Month.
Miami Fire Rescue allowed Local 10 News a behind-the-scenes look at where the city’s 911 dispatchers make their contribution to the emergency communications ecosystem in South Florida.
A team of six city dispatchers working during intense 12 to 16-hour shifts may answer about 300 calls for help in just one shift. But before any of them could even answer one call, they had to earn a Florida Department of Health certification.
This and a long list of required training prepared them to deal with medical emergencies: Everything from someone having difficulty breathing to helping a woman who is delivering a baby.
On Wednesday, in Congress, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Norma J. Torres, both Democrats; and Sen. Ted Budd and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, both Republicans introduced resolutions to help 911 dispatchers.
“For 17 years, I was the voice on the other end of a 911 call — listening to people in their darkest moments, calming terrified parents, and guiding callers through life-or-death situations," Torres said. “Dispatchers are more than operators; they are lifelines, holding steady when everything else feels out of control.”
Torres, also a former FBI agent, described the dispatchers as “highly trained experts who manage emergencies with speed, clarity, and composure under immense pressure” and wants the public to remember that “their decisions can mean the difference between life and death.”
The effort to honor 911 dispatcher’s dedication started over four decades ago with an initiative in California that The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, or APSCO, promoted. Former President Bill Clinton then made it official in 1994.
Local 10 News Digital Journalist Andrea Torres contributed to this report.