Sheriff’s Office Communications Division receives Kiwanis Club Life-Saver Award

Receiving the Kiwanis Club Life-Saver Award on behalf of the Sheriff’s Office Communications Division were, in front from left, Sgt. Tracy Canino, Sgt. Lacye Lulei, Lt. Jamie Penton and Sgt. Shannon Cooper. In back are Sam Catalanotto, chairman of the Kiwanis Life-Saver Committee; Sheriff James Pohlmann, Kiwanis Club President Mike Gorbaty and Col; David Mowers.

Four representatives of the Communications Division hold their Life-Saver Award certificates and gifts they received. From left are Sgt. Tracy Canino, Sgt. Lacye Lulei, Sgt. Shannon Cooper and Lt. Jamie Penton.

Last January a girl called the Sheriff’s Office Communications Division and reported her friend, another girl, had tripped and fallen on a Chalmette street, hurting herself.

But the dispatcher handling the call sensed there was something more to the injury than the girl had revealed and sent a sheriff’s patrol car and an ambulance to the scene.

It turned out the injured female had accidentally shot herself with a gun a boy had shown the two girls and she needed immediate medical attention, but survived.

It’s an example of the day-to-day job done by dispatchers in the Communications Division, which is commanded by Maj. Angela Huff.

The Communications Division is the backbone of the Sheriff’s Office, its dispatchers the first voice the public hears when someone calls 911 or 271-2501 to report criminal activity, a medical emergency, a fire or a vehicle accident.

And the calls for service are staggering – some 31,000 last year and more than 17,000 this year through mid-July.

While entering computerized information on a call, they often are on the line routing deputies to a location while also staying on a line with a caller to calm them down and give reassurance someone will soon be there to help.

And often lives are at stake.

For the work the Communications Division does it received the St. Bernard Kiwanis Club Life-Saver Award in a ceremony July 19.

Four members of the Communications Division accepted the award on behalf of all involved.

Present were Lt. Jamie Penton, who has been with the Sheriff’s Office for 18 years; and Sergeants Lacye Lulei. with nine years on the job; Shannon Cooper, with eight years on the department; and Tracy Canino, with eight years on the job.

Penton thanked the Kiwanis Club members, saying, “We appreciate you taking the time to acknowledge what we do.’’

Cooper said dispatchers must quickly determine what a call is about and sometimes “that is based on instinct,’’ such as hearing what is going on in the background of a call. She added, “We love our guys (the deputies out on the street they dispatch to scenes) and we want them to get home safe every day.’’

The Kiwanis Club gives the Life-Saver Award four times a year for special actions, twice to parish sheriff’s deputies and twice to firefighters.

Taking part in the ceremony were Sheriff James Pohlmann, Col. David Mowers, Sam Catalanotto – chairman of the Kiwanis Life-Saver Committee – and Kiwanis Club President Mike Gorbaty.

In presenting the award, Catalanotto said that more than 10 years ago the Kiwanis Club started the award as a way to recognize first-responders in the parish for the work they do to protect the public. “They put their lives on the line’’ for St. Bernard each day. “We think that’s a big deal.’’

Sheriff Pohlmann praised the work of the department’s Communications Division, saying they “do an awesome job. When the stuff hits the fan we rely on them.’’

He also said “they take calls that range from (a complaint about) a barking dog to a multiple fatality accident or a shooting. And they help keep people calm until we get there.’’

“We pride ourselves on a quick response time’’ and that is made possible by the work of the Communications Division, Sheriff Pohlmann said.

Working from a building on West St. Bernard Highway in Chalmette, they decide where a call needs to be routed, he said.

Some go to the Fire Department, some to the ambulance service and some to patrol deputies, based on whether there is a fire, a medical emergency, a car crash or a call about crime.