HELENA — Montana Highway Patrol dispatchers serve all of Montana's 56 counties and answer around three hundred daily calls to protect the Treasure State.
Brittney Buchanan is one of those dispatchers and says, "I feel really accomplished, you know we take home our accomplishments every day knowing that no one else is gonna know what we did, no one remembers our name."
The second week in April is recognized as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Appreciation Week.
On Tuesday, Attorney General Knudsen and the Montana Highway Patrol Colonel stopped by the dispatch center to celebrate the work that often goes unseen.
Knudsen says, "Law enforcement professionals could not do what they do without these folks, this is the nerve center."
The small room filled with computers, phones, radios, and dispatchers helps connect multiple state agencies like MHP, motor carrier services, and Montana FWP to each other and the public during an emergency.
"It really does feel good to pull those numbers, those phone calls, when they gave me my numbers for the year, I was like wow, that did not feel like 8,300 phone calls, but I did that," Buchanan says.
Buchanan has been recognized as 'Dispatcher of the Year' for answering all of those calls and for her patience and empathy with those in emergencies.
Dispatchers work 12-hour shifts and are assigned to different districts in the state every day because of Montana's size and rural nature, the job can be challenging.
"At times I think it can be like a giant puzzle trying to figure out who is closest to this location that is, for lack of better term,s in the middle of nowhere," Colonel Kurt Sager of Montana Highway Patrol says.
For Buchanan, although her job is difficult, it has been the perfect fit for her love of staying busy for almost three years.
"I really love people, I like talking to people, and I like talking, so I thought maybe it would be a good place to go," Buchanan says. "I really do just love it."
All dispatchers were celebrated and honored for the intense phone calls they handled over the last few months.
