Floyd County E-911 has been selected as the 2016 Georgia 911 Center of the Year. The selection was announced during the awards banquet at the annual Georgia Emergency Communications Conference on March 9. The conference and the award are a joint venture of the Georgia chapters of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). The winner of this award is chosen from nominations reviewed by a selection committee from a state outside of Georgia.
According to John Blalock, director of 911, “The award is the result of the hard work and dedication of Floyd County’s 911 Dispatchers. They have worked diligently with a spirit of public service and constant improvement that led to Floyd County E-911 becoming the third Georgia 911 Center to be certified as a Missing Kids Readiness Project member through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; reduced our employee turnover rate from over 50% to 7%; increased supervisory, dispatch and call-taking training; certification as an Emergency Medical Dispatch agency; innovative use of social media for public information, public education, and recruiting; the first 911 agency in the State of Georgia to implement an integrated system of text-to-911; increased partnerships with the local schools and the Deaf community; receiving over 120,000 911 calls while dispatching over 140,000 calls for service ranging from legal advice to a murder in view of our 911 dispatchers, and everything in between. ”
He added, “We are pleased and honored to accept the award as the 2016 Georgia 911 Center of the Year. We believe the award is well-deserved recognition for the day-to-day performance of Floyd County’s 911 Dispatchers, and that it is assurance to the citizens and visitors of Rome and Floyd County that your local 911 dispatchers are well prepared to handle any emergency.”