National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week falls on April 11–17, 2027, honoring the 911 call-takers and dispatchers who handle strangers’ worst moments.
Second Full Week of April
Each April, during the month’s second full week, from Sunday to Saturday. In 2026, it ran April 12 to 18.
Patricia Anderson, a dispatcher with California’s Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, started it in 1981. It later became national when a president signed it into law.
Award nominations open each year on the official NPSTW site, so centers can honor standout staff.
Jack Varnado, who leads the group behind the official site, puts the rule simply. The second week of April belongs to telecommunicators, he writes.
A Forgotten Lunch and a Cake
Its origin story is a good one. In 1981, Sheriff Richard Rainey took his administrative staff out to lunch.
When they left at 11 a.m., nobody remembered that their after-hours phone lines were forwarded to dispatch. Calls flooded the dispatch room.
A supervisor tried to reach the front office, but the calls just bounced back. Administration didn’t return until 1 p.m. to turn the forwarding off.
Anderson, a longtime dispatcher, confronted the sheriff. Rainey apologized, and at 2 p.m. he and Under Sheriff Warren Rupf arrived with a cake.
It read “Happy Dispatcher Week.” Secretaries had been honored since 1955, and in 1981 the last week of April was set aside for them. Now dispatchers had a week too.
The thank-you became a habit. Hired in April 1982, Lisa Hoffmann recalled the sheriff or his deputy stopping by dispatch every single April to say thanks.
Why Dispatchers Need a Week
Varnado calls it “a chance for the public at large to truly see and understand what public safety telecommunicators do each day.”
Volume is huge. An estimated 240 million calls reach 911 in the U.S. each year, NENA says, and in many areas 80% or more come from cell phones.
Crises push centers to the limit. During Winter Storm Fern, Nashville’s dispatchers answered more than 32,000 calls in the first few days.
Calls pour in fast in disasters. Nashville’s emergency call volume jumped more than 700 percent between January 24 and January 25 that winter.
Getting to a single number took decades. Fire chiefs proposed one emergency number for fires in 1957, and a presidential commission urged a nationwide number in 1967.
Answering calls is only the start. Dispatchers send help, then link the public with responders in the field, Nashville’s center explains, calling them the “first” first responders.
Work never stops. Centers like Nashville’s run around the clock, even on holidays and in storms.
Nashville’s own message is simple: “those answering 911 calls are human, just like you.”
How to Thank Dispatchers
Dispatchers rarely meet the people they help. A small gesture this week goes a long way, and many centers welcome visitors who call ahead.
- Drop off a thank-you card or a tray of snacks at your local 911 center, after calling ahead.
- Share a story of a dispatcher who helped you or your family, with permission.
- Teach your kids when to call 911, and how to give their home address clearly and calmly.
- Ask your city council to recognize local telecommunicators by name at a public meeting this month.
- Bake a cake, in honor of the very first one in 1981.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Telecommunicators Week an official observance?
Yes. It began locally and was later recognized in federal law.
How many 911 calls come from cell phones?
In many places, at least four of every five.
What’s another name for the week?
Many centers simply call it Dispatchers Week.