For over fifteen years Chuck Cleveland has been a dispatcher for the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office. Cleveland never knows what he’s going to hear when he answers a 9-1-1 call, but sometimes it’s people in dire need, in situations where getting immediate assistance can mean the difference between life and death. Cleveland says occasionally callers are hysteric, he says he does his best to get them to take a deep breath and accurately relay the situation to him. “For me, if I’m talking to somebody. Take a deep breath, gather your wits and speak to us calmly. We’ve had people screaming and everything, it doesn’t help when you’re screaming ‘just get here! I need somebody here’. Where’s here? It goes quicker if people are calm and get us the information to pass along to whoever it needs to get to.”

April 13-19 is designated as National Telecommunicators Week, which aims to recognize behind-the-scenes heroes like Cleveland.