If you have an emergency and call 911, a calm voice answers and is immediately ready to help you, while also getting emergency responders headed your way. What many people don’t know is that calm voice may be handling more than one emergency situation at a time.
Cindy Gross is the manager of the Central South Dakota Communications Center based in Pierre. She says her team of communications officers– or 911 dispatchers– direct local agencies in five counties and state and federal resources in a much larger area.
Last year (2024), Gross says communications officers in Pierre answered more than 6000 911 calls from Hughes, Stanley, Jones, Sully and Hyde counties.
Gross says they answered more than 46-thousand calls last year for state agencies such as the South Dakota Highway Patrol.
Gross says the Central South Dakota Communications Center is different from many other 911 dispatch centers around the state and the U.S.
Gross says each communications officer must pass 14-16 weeks of training.
During the day, Gross says there is typically four dispatchers working each shift, with two working per shift in the overnight hours.
This is National Public Safety Telecommunications Week (April 13-19, 2025).
Comments