Palo Alto, CA -- During the week of April 13 - 19, Public Safety Dispatchers will be celebrating National Public Safety Telecommunications Week. Since 1994, a week has been set aside by Congressional decree to honor the hard work and dedication of the country's "First" first responders, the police, fire and emergency medical dispatchers.

Located in a windowless room in the basement of the City Hall, four dispatchers work on each shift around the clock answering both emergency and non-emergency phones while dispatching police, fire, paramedics for Palo Alto and Stanford University, public works, utilities and animal control crews to incidents. Palo Alto has the third highest call volume in Santa Clara County with 190,000 phone calls logged this last year. This year, with the advent of new 911 technologies that will connect the wireless caller to the closest emergency dispatch center, that number is expected to increase by 30%.

As part of the celebration, a recognition luncheon will be held at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga on Wednesday, April 16th. Palo Alto Police Chief Pat Dwyer will be the MC and Keynote Speaker. Various sponsors made contributions and several fundraisers were conducted to raise money for this opportunity to recognize dispatchers from twelve different public safety dispatch centers in Santa Clara County.

Dispatchers from each agency voted to recognize their peers as their Dispatcher of the Year. In Palo Alto, Chief Dispatchers Don Greenwell and Orthello Jordan and Dispatcher Clem Keyes will be honored. Countywide group awards provided recognition to dispatchers for Special Achievement: San Jose Police Communications Dispatch Response Team; and, Outstanding Performance: San Jose Fire Communications Santana Row-Huff/Moorpark Fires. Individual countywide awards were given for Emergency Medical Dispatcher of the Year: Sunnyvale DPS David Hayhurst; and, the Ramona Raymond Pillar Inspiration Award: Palo Alto Dispatcher Theresa Rossetto.

For additional information, contact PAPD Technical Services Division Coordinator Sheryl Contois at 650-329-2498.

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