Telecommunicator Week
The first voice on every 911 call
National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week is held the second full week of April. It honors the 911 call-takers and dispatchers who answer emergency calls and send help.
It began in 1981 with a dispatcher at the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office in California, spread through the public safety communications profession, and became a national observance by act of Congress in the 1990s.
In Texas, telecommunicators are licensed by the state, the same as peace officers and jailers.
What a telecommunicator does
- Answers every 911 call and text
- Day and night, holidays included. Often the caller can’t say where they are, or can barely talk.
- Finds where you are
- From the address you give, your phone’s location, or a landmark on a county road.
- Sends help
- Deputies, officers, fire and EMS, often several at once, and keeps them updated on the way.
- Stays on the line
- Talks callers through CPR, bleeding control or a fire until help arrives.
In the South Plains, each year
- 911 calls answered
- 52,000+
- 911 texts answered
- 1,200+
- 911 centers
- 12
- counties they answer for
- 14
How SPAG supports them all year
Support for 911 centers- Training
- SPAG pays for the classes the region’s telecommunicators choose to take.
- Licensing
- SPAG handles the state telecommunicator licensing paperwork for the region’s 911 centers.
- Equipment and network
- SPAG maintains the 911 equipment in each center and the network that carries calls to it.
- 911 map data
- SPAG GIS keeps the roads and addresses on the 911 map current, so locations show up right.
Help them help you
Know where you are
Your address, or the county road and nearest crossroad. Calling 911
Text if you can’t talk
Text-to-911 works across the region. Call if you can, text if you can’t. Text‑to‑911
Stay on the line
If you dial by mistake, don’t hang up. Say it was an accident so no one is sent.
Answer the call
911 centers across the region hire telecommunicators. Openings are posted on the regional jobs board, and SPAG pays for the classes the region’s telecommunicators choose to take.
See dispatcher jobs