Video: Week Honors North Miss. E911 Operators

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MONROE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) — This is National Telecommunications Week and E911 operators in North Mississippi are being honored for dedicating their lives to serve the public.

For 23 years Monroe County E911 dispatcher Brenda McCullough has been tucked away at her post, doing a good job behind the scenes, where lives are often saved and no one gets to even see her.

“Simply because they are not in the publics view. They are not running around in fire trucks or in ambulances or in police cars. They are actually here behind a radio console manning the desk and disseminating information and keeping up with everything. Make sure the appropriate response its taking place,” said Bunky Goza/Monroe County EMA Director.

McCullough and her colleagues have seen many changes over the decades. The technology, in particular, is always evolving.

“Such as GPS technology. We’re doing so much more now as to identifying where the call is, where the caller is. The phone number thats coming from and also location of the caller such as by GPS coordinates,” said Bunky Goza.

Given a scenerio where there is a major fire at a public school, McCullough knows exactly what to do.

“The kids, I got to get everything and everybody out there. The fire, the police, ambulance, everybody. Got to make sure everybody is out of the building,” said Brenda McCullough.

“Someone calls and they say I’ve been shot you know. Just a normal person would feed right into it and panic right with the caller. But our dispatchers, you know she immediately takes over and starts getting the information she doesn’t panic. They all stay calm,” said Donna Sanderson/EMA Deputy Director.

“I have to keep a cool head to calm them down to get them to tell me whats going on. Their location, you know basically just the basic stuff. Because if I panic they are not going to to get anything solved and nothing is going to be resolved by that,” said Brenda McCullough.

To the caller on the other end of the line, a properly handled 911 call, can mean the difference between life or death.

“A dispatcher is a true responder just as much as a fire fighter is. Just as much as a law enforcement officer is. As much as an ems provider is,” said Bunky Goza.

In 2015 Monroe County EMA dispatchers received and processed over 10,000 emergency calls.