NPST Week celebrates 911 dispatchers

NEGAUNEE — April 10th through 16th has been a moment to honor the people behind the scenes who give help to people who need it.

National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, or more commonly known as 9–1–1 dispatchers, recognizes the men and women who answer distress calls and provide assistance. Emergency Dispatch Supervisor Kory Dykstra says that different calls have different levels of difficulty, but that the dispatcher always has the same goal.

“You learn to try to distance yourself from some of that,” said Emergency Dispatch Supervisor Kory Dykstra, “because we here some pretty bad things. Occassionaly some good things, but for the most part a lot of things are very bad. So you learn to use your training, your experience, and try to get people the help they need as fast as they can because that’s our primary job.”

Just as a reminder, under emergency circumstances; the Michigan State Police – Negaunee Post does have the ability to receive 9–1–1 texts.

For more information on National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week click here.