A vital connection: Telecommunicators honored during National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week

Yahoo

13-04-2025

Apr. 12—When there is an emergency and somebody needs help from law enforcement, fire department or ambulance, there is generally one voice a caller will hear first — a public safety telecommunicator (PST).
For years the PST has been the calming voice on the other end of an emergency whose job it is to get help to the caller as quickly as possible, but the span of that work is much broader than people likely realize.
"We have a lot of things that are being thrown at us constantly," said Tracy Hauschildt, Mower County Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) supervisor. "There is radio traffic and there are at least seven different talk groups we're constantly monitoring. And then we have the happy people, angry people, sad people and those are constantly coming at us too."
PSTs generally work behind the scenes, taking calls and distributing information from the PSAP, or hub of the law enforcement network. Overseen by the Mower County Sheriff's Department, there are currently 11 PSTs, though the aim is to have 12 at the end of the day.
However, Hauschildt, along with Mower County Sheriff Steve Sandvik, are hoping to highlight the work that the PSTs do each day with a new pitch to bring them more fully into the public eye.
April 13-19 is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week and serves as a reminder of how important the PST is.
While the week itself isn't new, having originated in the 1980s, it does coincide nicely with the effort locally to get PSTs recognized by the general public.
"For me, I think it would be important to get them out there more," Hauschildt said. "I do think it's important for them to have more of a face out there. They're not appreciated the way they should be. They're the unsung heroes of this community and I really do stand by that. Were we only able to get them out there more there would be more of an understanding of why they do the things that they do."
Broadly speaking, it's a lot. Calls for assistance in one way or another come into the PSAP hub on a fairly steady basis and can involve everything from animal complaints to a variety of 911 calls.
But it's the numbers themselves that can tell the story as easily as anything.
In 2023, Mower's PSAP administration line received 34,555 calls, a number that more than tripled in 2024 when telecommunicators received 105,398 calls.
On the 911 line, calls again tripled from 12,967 calls in 2023 to 35,474 in 2024.
"It's so much information constantly being given to us," Hauschildt said. "We have so much of a time frame that we want to get that help to you as quickly as possible. Our actual goal is to get in the first two minutes of the phone call your location, name, what's going on and get your first response sent to you."
Even for those who are responding to the calls telecommunicators dispatch out, the work can seem at times as overwhelming.
For years, Sandvik re
membered when it was just one person taking calls and how they would stop in to relieve the person if a break was needed.
"I would go in and take the microphone for them," Sandvik said. "I have done that for years and years until probably the last four, five years. You go in and look at those six screens: I can't do what you do and I can't provide ancillary information. It just can't be done without that high level training and competency in the multi-tasking environment."
"Their ability to calmly multi-task within the incident and everything else that is going on at the time is absolutely unbelievable," he continued. "I'm in awe every time I see it or hear it."
A telecommunicator herself, Hauschildt knows what that volume of calls can be like on a daily basis. She came to the position after spending time as an ER tech at Mayo Clinic Health Care System-Austin.
She remembers hearing the calls come across the line at the hospital and how intrigued she was about becoming a part of that.
"I wanted to know what all of those 10-codes were," she said. "I think that was when my first interest peaked."
Even after she has become the supervisor, Hauschildt said she is impressed each day by what the telecommunicators work through. She went on to say that the position comes with a never-ending need to continue learning.
"It's been interesting," she said. "It's been a lot of learning. I'm constantly learning on a daily basis."
A change of title, a change in job outline
For years, those working within the PSAP were known as dispatchers, but that's been changing over the years simply because the word "dispatch" has been too broad of term and didn't rightly identify what it was that telecommunicators were doing.
"I don't like that phrase," Hauschildt said. "I think until that mindset changes, things aren't going to change."
A survey done in Minnesota identified that it was too vague a term and so the move was made to focus on the public safety aspect of their jobs.
Now work has shifted to try and bring PSTs fully into the law enforcement circle and identify them as first responders.
"They are vitally important," Sandvik said. "They are our first responders. They are our first contact on every emergency, every call for service whether it's an emergency or a question. They are that contact voice for everyone, whether they reside here or are traveling through to get the help they need or alert people to an emergency situation."
For the last few years, efforts have been focused on both the state and federal levels to get telecommunicators recognized as first responders, meaning in part, their pensions would be categorized the same as fire, law enforcement and ambulance.
For Sandvik, it's a matter of recognizing their importance.
"They are part of my sheriff's office team and I consider no part of the team any less important than any other one," he said. "Each and every aspect of our office has very difficult jobs. Theirs is unique. You don't get to see the person, you only hear them."
A part of team
One of the aspects of being a telecommunicator is the unknown detail. The PSTs will get the call, dispatch accordingly and then often can be left out of the final resolution of whatever situation that may entail.
That's despite dealing with much of what responders are facing.
"Stress and mental health studies show how mental health and stress is the same for telecommunicators as it is for the officers on scene," Hauschildt said. "The only thing is that the telecommunicators don't have the pictures. They don't have the story in front of them to actually get the closure they need."
When you add the information of what is flowing through the PSAP, the work can become even more daunting.
"Their job is so difficult," Sandvik said. "They have to glean information on your worst day. All the while other phones are ringing, there's multiple 911 lines going on and multiple administrative lines."
At the same time there is an enormous sense of pride.
"Now seeing the other side of it, I see truly how much work it is on their side," Hauschildt said. "Yes, I did it at one point, but now I see as I'm trying to teach others as well just what it takes for them to do it and how steady they have to be and how quick they have to be in doing it all."
"I can honestly say, when I go to other PSAP centers and speak about my own center, I do have a lot of pride and joy in my crew," she added.