April 11 – 17, 2021 is National Telecommunicators Week, when we get to celebrate our dispatchers and how they help keep our community safe.

This past year has been a challenging one for everyone, including the professionals who answer calls at the police department. Early on in the pandemic our dispatchers reconfigured their schedules to minimize exposure and closed the Dispatch Center to non-dispatchers, including officers. Throughout the year, in addition to handling calls on traffic violations, lost dogs and medical emergencies, dispatchers also managed calls related to COVID-19 symptoms and the stay-at-home order. 

In Eden Prairie we have our own 911 Dispatch Center that handles all police, fire and ambulance calls in the city. In addition, our dispatchers manage non-emergency calls after regular business hours such as broken water mains, urgent road repairs and malfunctioning signal lights. On average, dispatchers answer 50,000 non-emergency and 911 calls each year.

Our dispatchers’ ability to multitask, effectively communicate and remain calm, sometimes under extreme pressure, is imperative to keeping both officers and residents safe. For that we say thank you and happy National Telecommunicators Week!