Courtesy Thomas Weitzel

For the past several years, the Riverside Police Department, as well as public safety agencies nationwide, has recognized the pivotal role played by telecommunicators in the delivery of public safety support to law enforcement, fire service, and emergency medical services.

Each year, the second week of April is dedicated to the men and women who serve as public safety telecommunicators. In 1991, Congress proclaimed it was a nationally recognized week of recognition.

The Riverside Police Department Communications Center will be celebrating National Communication Week April 14 through April 20. The Riverside Police Department operates its own 911 center and it’s highly trained employees dispatch for police, fire, EMS, public works. They handle mutual aid requests for other agencies as well as deal with individuals that physically come into the police department lobby and would like to interact with dispatchers on routine matters.

The Riverside Police Department’s 911 center employs four full-time telecommunications professionals, Jean Stuczynski, Sheryl Palermo, Lynda Gutierrez, and Deana Wetzler. The police department also employs four part-time highly skilled dispatchers: Mike Quan, Jim Moldenhauer, Lisa Broche, and Valerie Gorniak.

The telecommunications center is supervised by Sergeant William Gutschick.

Facts about the Riverside Police Department’s 911 Center:

The center currently employs eight civilian communications operators. The average length of service is ten years. There are two primary radio councils for both police and fire. We received 3,239 911 calls and 12,113 other phone calls totaling 15,352 phone calls handled by the Communications Center in 2012.

Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel stated, “The Riverside Police Department’s 911 civilian employees are highly trained career employees that have extensive training in emergency situations. They are professional career employees that service both police, fire and the residents of Riverside with high quality emergency management skills so that both police and fire can deliver effective and efficient response to the residents of Riverside. It is my pleasure to honor these outstanding employees as part of the Riverside Police Department overall team approach to serving the residents of Riverside.”