This week is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. There are nine full-time and three part-time dispatchers working for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

Michelle Kingrey, is the communications coordinator at the Sheriff’s Office. She tells KNIA/KLRLS News why she got into the business. “I decided to apply for the job out here because I wanted to help my community. I thought it would be a good fit for me. I like to be able to help and to be able to take control of a situation, the best that I can.”

Kingrey felt one of the most important parts of the job is to keep the officers and deputies safe as well as the community.

She said some of the duties of the job are to take emergent and non-emergent calls. Kingery said the telecommunicators help the public by asking a lot of questions. There are a lot of computer screens the crew monitors in the command center, ranging from 911 calls, to locating and communicating with officers and keeping an eye on severe weather.

To learn more about the job, tune into next week’s Let’s Talk Knoxville program on this subject. 

The list of telecommunicators working at the Sheriff’s Office – 

Full time,  Michelle Kingrey, Cody Rankin, Jeff McLaren, Nate Forst, Sonnie Curtis, Carly Greubel, Hailey Groenendyk, Tyler Killoren and Kayla Winder.

Part-time

Mark Schmaltz, Malinda Cox and Kate Wignall.