A Message from APCO’s President

The week of April 14-20, 2019 is a week to celebrate YOU and all that you accomplish each and every day. It is a great time to honor and praise the amazing “service above self” work dedication; assisting with the birth of a child over the phone, talking a caller through performing CPR on a family member, calming a victim of a violent crime, reassuring a child that there are no monsters under their bed, texting with a teenager that might be witnessing a crime at their school, or just having a conversation with an elderly caller, who may be confused and not have anyone else to contact.

The simple definition of service is “the action of helping or doing work for someone”. Although being a public safety telecommunicator is never as simple as this definition of service, it is the most important function. In order to effectively serve others, it takes different ideas, skillsets and personalities to assist in being successful; a group of like-minded people coming together to accomplish a common goal, through good times and bad, through sadness and happiness, and through merriment and defeat. Each of us has unique set of attributes that we bring to the profession, but at the end of the day, we all have the same goals, which are to serve our citizens and first responders and ensure to the best of our abilities that everyone is kept safe from harm.

Celebrating the passion, perseverance, friendship, commitment to service, nurturing spirit and teamwork that is shown day in and day out by public safety telecommunicators is the definition of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.

On behalf of the APCO International Executive Committee and APCO staff, we want to express our pride and appreciation for all you do.  We recognize, support and celebrate YOU.

Holly Wayt
APCO President