State police honors ‘silent heroes’

“Our Post 4 dispatchers are vital to everything we do and are the best at keeping us safe and informed. So this week is for them,” said Capt. Daniel White, commander of Post 4.

State police telecommunicators handle dispatch duties for state troopers, Commercial Vehicle Enforcement officers, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife conservation offi­­cers and other emergency ser­vice agencies. Their duties include calling wrecker ser­vices, notifying channels of ad­min­istration, running license plate and driver’s license num­bers, running criminal his­tories and notifying family mem­bers while continuing to an­swer new calls and handling other radio traffic. Most import­antly, they are a calming voice on the other line when someone calls 911 and most likely is having the worst day of their life, the release said.

State police employ 180 telecommunicators at 16 posts across the state. In 2019, they answered 2.1 million calls resulting in 500,236 requests for assistance. Post 4 has 10 telecommunicators who handle calls from an eight-county area. Last year, they responded to 24,965 calls.

Post 4 Telecommunicators are Joey Mattingly, Nita Frank­lin, Jodi Shacklette, Chuck Ste­wart, Corey Wright, J.R. Paris, John McDowell, Amanda Siler, Derek Orr and Spencer Ray.

During National Tele­com­mun­icators Appreciation Week, KSP plans to highlight the great work of all dispatchers across the state by highlighting stories of their great work and sharing photos and videos about their efforts on the KSP Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts.