Chief Richard D. Howe and Deputy Chief Shaun Woods wish to recognize the public safety dispatchers of the Tyngsborough Police Department during this year’s National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.
National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week (NPSTW) is held annually during the second week of April to honor telecommunications personnel for their commitment, service, and sacrifice.
NPSTW, held this year from April 10-16, is a time to celebrate and thank telecommunications personnel across the country who serve their communities, citizens and public safety personnel 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Tyngsborough Police Department would like the recognize its team of telecommunicators and dispatchers on their work serving the residents of Tyngsborough. These men and women are responsible for a variety of technical and dispatching work related to the answering of all emergency and non-emergency telephone calls and alarms in support of the Department’s operations.
“Anyone who knows our communications team and understands what they do everyday, as Deputy Woods and I do, understands how fortunate we are to have such an incredibly dedicated and highly trained group of Communication Specialists,” said Chief Howe. “We are grateful for what they do, and appreciative of their role in the safety of our community, Police and Fire Department personnel.”
To learn more about NPSTW, visit NPSTW.org.
National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week is held during the month of April, which also happens to be National 911 Education Month. According to the National Emergency Number Association, around 240 million 911 calls are made annually. National 911 Education Month is recognized across the country to conduct outreach and inform community members on emergency protocols and resources.
In order to make sure residents are able to receive help in an emergency, the Tyngsborough Police Department provides the following safety tips from the National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) and the Federal Communications Commission as part of National 911 Education Month:
- Know Your Location — With wireless calls, 911 operators can locate callers, but more information may be needed in order for emergency services to find exact locations. Be prepared to provide detailed information on your location to assist the 911 operator.
- Stay Calm and Don’t Hang Up — Unless instructed to do otherwise, you should stay on the line when calling 911 in order to provide necessary information to the operator. Even if you accidentally dial 911, you should stay on the line and inform the operator that there is no emergency and that you did not mean to call.
- Text-to-911 — Text-to-911 is the ability to send a text message to reach 911 emergency call takers from your mobile phone or device. However, because voice calls to 911 provide more information to 911 call centers, you should always make a voice call to 911 during an emergency whenever possible. When a citizen sends a text message to 911, it will be routed to an emergency call center based on the location information provided by the carrier. For this reason, when a citizen sends a Text-to-911, they should make every effort to text the town name, address or location that they are located in.