GREENE – Everyone should know how to call, when to call and when not to call 911, according to Chenango County Public Safety Dispatcher Daron Schultes.
On Monday, just as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week kicked off, Schultes talked to seniors at the Brightman Senior Center in Greene about these important topics. It’s all part of the Chenango County Communication Center’s ongoing outreach efforts. Their goal is to educate people – particularly young children and older adults – about 911.
“A lot of people don’t realize what we do on this side of the phone,” Schultes said.
Through the outreach program, he strives to help people better understand the role he and his fellow dispatchers play and why the information they gather during a call is important.
“We’ve already seen a difference,” he said.
Schultes began his presentation by putting a face to the 911 center, showing pictures of the dispatchers which staff it 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. He also displayed pictures of the cramped quarters they occupied in the old Sheriff’s Office before they moved to their present digs at the Chenango County Public Safety Building in 2006.
“The bathroom is the same size as our old center,” he explained, eliciting chuckles from the crowd.
Schultes also described how technology has changed their job. Gone are the bulky old IBM computers, radio consoles and large maps they used in the ‘80s. Now, each dispatcher sits at a bank of state-of-the-art touch screens, from which they can document calls in the Computer Aided Dispatch system, make use of a complex mapping system and dispatch emergency services in an instant.
The job has gotten more complex as well, since the Communications Center now handles calls for more than 50 agencies, including the Chenango County Sheriff’s Department, New York State Police out of Norwich, six municipal law enforcement agencies, and more than 40 fire departments and EMS agencies. They also handle after-hours calls to several Chenango County departments, dispatch for the City of Norwich PD overnight and monitor fire alarms for some 75 buildings. In addition, they monitor the 200 senior subscribers who use LifeLine.
“There really isn’t an agency in this county that we can’t contact,” he said.
All told, dispatchers field calls on 26 emergency and non-emergency phone lines.
“At any time, those could all ring at once,” Schultes said.
So, when should someone call 911? In the event of an accident, a fire, a medical emergency or if you witness a crime taking place, see a suspicious person or notice a hazardous situation like downed power lines, the dispatcher explained.
