Dispatchers recognized during National Public Safety Telecommunicators week

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - Saturday marked the final day of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.

Aileen Bush is one of the supervisors for the Eau Claire Police Department’s dispatch center.

“I’ve been here for 21 years,” Bush said.

Bush says she saw the job posting one day and thought being a dispatcher could be a way to help the community and get involved. She says it’s been interesting ever since.

“Two days are never the same,” Bush said. “So it’s just so interesting and impactful to the community.”

Bush says the Eau Claire communications center takes calls for all of Eau Claire County’s police, fire, and EMS.

“We’re usually the first point of contact for everything,” Bush said. “And then we’re dispatching out the calls and we’re getting all the resources that are going to help and we’re the communication in between the caller and all the units arriving on the scene.”

Bush says all types of calls come in.

“When the roads are slippery, we’re the ones that are contacting shops too, and just making sure they’re aware of what area,” Bush said. “EMS calls come in and it could be CPR, it could be childbirth, it could be somebody who’s having chest pain, simple things, and then any calls for service, for theft, and for burglaries.”

Even though the job can be demanding at times, she says it’s gratifying.

“It can be extremely stressful because we could have several calls at once on several different things going on and then, you know, if there is downtime, we also have a lot of other things that we’re doing,” Bush said. “Overall it’s, it’s an enjoyable job.”

Bush says it takes a group effort to keep things running smoothly.

“It is definitely a teamwork environment where we’re helping each other out and there’s no way one person could do all of this,” Bush said.

At the end of the day, Bush says it’s all worth it.

“It can be a really rewarding job,” Bush said.

Like Bush, more than 20 people answer calls at telecommunicators for Eau Claire County.

Although she’s not interacting with the community in-person, Bush says she’s happy to help one phone call at a time.

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