The City of Cambridge Emergency Communications Department is celebrating this year’s National Telecommunicators Week April 14-20, 2024 in honor of the dedicated dispatchers who constitute the community’s first point of contact in an emergency and handle several thousand 9-1-1 calls each month.
As part of this year’s celebration, Emergency Communications is looking to hear from the community and better understand how dispatchers have helped residents. The Department is encouraging residents to submit their stories, provide words of encouragement, and demonstrate thanks to show dispatchers how valuable they are.
You can give thanks to the heroes of 911 by filling out this brief form: https://forms.office.com/r/dZWNxpiPRa.
You can also share your story by using the hashtag #ThankYou911 and tagging @CambMA on social media and/or send it along to 911info@cambridge911.org. You can also follow Emergency Communications on Instagram @cambridgema911.
“Our Emergency Telecommunications Dispatchers (ETD) staff the City of Cambridge’s 911 Call Center 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year,” said Christina Giacobbe, Director of Emergency Communications and 911 for the City of Cambridge. “They work overnights and on holidays, rain or shine, to ensure the safety of the people of Cambridge. They are always prepared to assist callers in a wide range of emergencies with the utmost care and compassion.”
In 1991, the United States Congress proclaimed the second week in April to be National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. This weeklong event was the first formalized celebration on a national scale of the men and women who serve as public safety telecommunicators. Each year, the event is promoted nationwide by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), whose efforts helped to bring about the recognition of public safety telecommunicators, colloquially known as “dispatchers.”