Fayette County’s 911 Communications Center has been named the 911 center of the year in Georgia by the state’s National Emergency Number Association.

The center was honored for its employees’ excellent rapport with the public and excellent customer service. One of the most significant improvements at the center in recent years has been in the training program, said Cheryl Rogers, director of the 911 center.

New trainees receive classroom training that is crafted by all the supervisors, making sure they know the lingo and what is expected of them before they try their hand at dispatching for any of the county’s eight public safety agencies, Rogers said.

“I can’t say enough about the folks here. I am very proud of them,” Rogers said, noting that Fayette County has additional expectations for its operators unlike some other agencies. “And they live up to those expectations.”

The training program has been credited for reducing staff turnover, which peaked at 12-14 people a year recently but is now roughly half that, Rogers said. It also has been used successfully by other agencies, and Fayette’s former training officer helped train a seven-county consortium in rural Georgia when they began their first 911 system several years ago, Rogers noted.

Some new training focused on supervisors themselves, and Fayette invited other agencies to participate in that training, which helps everyone should a need arise, Rogers said. For example, in 2000 there was a funeral that several local dispatchers wanted to attend, and to help out Clayton County sent several dispatchers over to help fill in alongside other Fayette dispatchers during the funeral service, Rogers noted.

“Our lingo, the techniques and the procedure, it’s all alike,” Rogers said.

Clayton, Henry and several other nearby counties also use the same computer-aided dispatch system as Fayette does, Rogers noted.

Rogers said she was also proud of a career program presentation the 911 center coordinates at McIntosh High School through the school resource officer. The program exposes students to the requirements and demands on people who choose to become an emergency dispatcher, she said. Students even get to practice taking emergency information from a distressed caller so the info can be relayed to emergency crews.

Rogers hopes with a recent round of new positions that the program can be expanded to all high schools in the county.

Rogers also credited the good working relationship the center has with local emergency agencies, who are getting busier. In one recent three-day stretch, police had an armed robbery one day, a domestic-related hostage situation the next, capped by a shooting on the third day.

Rogers, who has been in Fayette since starting as a Peachtree City dispatcher 27 years ago, notes the county is becoming more and more affected by serious crimes.

“Those are primary calls when life or death are involved, but we have the people who can handle it,” Rogers said.

Fayette dispatchers handle an average of more than 45 contacts per hour including citizen calls and communications with police and other emergency crews, Rogers said.