Recognizing National Public Safety Telecommunications Week

Published on April 10, 2023

Every year during the second week of April, the City of Menlo Park celebrates its communications dispatchers who dedicate their lives to serving our community. The safety of our community depends on the incredible work of our communications dispatchers.

Many 9-1-1 calls are received after something serious was discovered, just occurred or is in-progress. Callers tend to be very emotional, stressed and their adrenaline is up!

Communications dispatchers are trained to remain calm, gather pertinent facts and multitask. They monitor radio communication and check officer status, ask lots of questions of callers, respond to Text-to-911, deploy police, fire or medical staff, coordinate with neighboring jurisdictions and stay on the phone with callers until help arrives. Once assistance is on scene, communications dispatchers are on to the next call.

Dispatchers are a critical part of the team. They gather important information from callers to relay to officers responding to calls for service. In every emergency, they are the calm voice on the other end of the telephone to let callers know they are not alone and help is on the way. The service they provide is invaluable.

In 2022, there were 39,297 calls into the communications center. Of these, 9,528 were 9-1-1 calls plus the center received another 43 Text-to-911 messages.

Assembly Bill 1945, passed in 2020, recognizes the work of communications dispatchers by reclassifying them as first responders, passed with bipartisan support out of the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee.

Our communications dispatchers are true first responders, the one you hear and don’t see! Learn more about entry level or seasoned employment opportunities as a communications dispatcher at menlopark.gov/jobs.