Sheriff Brown, along with the members of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office will be celebrating and thanking our dispatchers and call takers during Nation Public Safety Communications Week from April 10-16, 2022.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff dispatchers and call takers provide dispatching services, 9-1-1 call taking and non-emergency call taking and support for Santa Barbara County Sheriff, Santa Barbara County Fire and American Medical Response for the areas served by those agencies. Dispatchers and call takers are responsible for answering emergency and non-emergency phone lines, determining and prioritizing calls for service, dispatching appropriate resources and providing lifesaving medical pre-arrival instructions to bystanders who have witnessed a medical emergency and are in the critical moments before help arrives. Follow this link to the Sheriff’s Office YouTube channel to learn more about dispatch.

Sheriff Brown said “Our public safety dispatchers and call takers are an extraordinary group of women and men who answer calls for help 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Answering calls for help from members of the public and dispatching cops, paramedics and firefighters to law enforcement, medical and fire emergencies, many of which are inter-connected, requires great levels of dedication to duty, coolness under extreme conditions, technical skills, an outstanding ability to communicate, and large doses of tact, patience, common sense and empathy for the plight of others. We could not do our work without emergency communicators; they make a difference and earn our respect each and every day.”

If you, or someone you, know is interested in a rewarding and exciting career as an Emergency Communications Call-Taker or a Communications Dispatcher, the Sheriff’s Office is accepting applications now. Visit our website, SBSheriff.org to join our team.