Many local and county agencies across the thumb made sure to thank their dispatchers recently as the state does the same during National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week from April 9-15.
The State 911 Committee (SNC) is recognizing Michigan telecommunicators and their vital contributions to public safety as part of this week. In Michigan, 911 centers serve as the primary point for dispatching police, fire, and EMS responses.
In addition to answering and dispatching emergency calls, telecommunicators also provide pre-arrival instructions for police, fire, and medical calls, activate weather alerts, coordinate additional incident scene response such as medical examiners, child protective services, hospitals, road commission, utility and public works department notifications, callouts for specialized response teams such as search and rescue, SWAT, negotiating teams, and hazmat response teams.
Today there are 135 primary Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) in Michigan, with approximately 2,200 telecommunicators in Michigan. According to the SNC’s 2022 Annual Report to the Michigan Legislature, of the counties and service districts that reported, telecommunicators in Michigan answered: about 6.6 million calls to 911; 9,488 texts-to-911; and almost 7.8 million calls from non-emergency 911 lines.
