During National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) recognizes those who save lives in times of crisis and raise awareness of the hard work and dedication of public safety telecommunicators.
One such example occurred on November 16, 2020, when Hamilton County (OH) Communications Officer Lisa Helm took a call from a frantic grandmother who uttered the words nobody wants to hear, “My grandson… He was just kidnapped.”
Ms. Helm remained professional and informative and was able to calm the caller to get all the details necessary to the police dispatcher to relay to the responding officers. It took Ms. Helm 38 seconds from the moment she picked up the 9-1-1 call to the moment she sent the information to the police queue for unit response. In just over 60 seconds Ms. Helm was able to input the suspect’s name, vehicle description and possible registration, as well as a location.
This was an “all-hands-on-deck” situation as the entire Hamilton County Communications Center team assisted in achieving a positive outcome to a horrific situation. Everyone involved, including Ms. Helm, Radio Operator Tom Rapp, and Shift Supervisor Jessica Prichard, helped to recover the child within 23 minutes from when the initial 9-1-1 call was made. The child was unharmed at the time of recovery and quickly reunited with his family.
The Hamilton County Communications Center is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence as a national leader in emergency communications through core training, employee development, technical innovation, strategic organizational planning and operational efficiency. It consistently meets the training and policy requirements to maintain membership in NCMEC’s Missing Kids Readiness Program (MKRP). Learn more about this program.
