Location: Trinity Hall, Lemoore

Incident Date: 4/14/18

City: Lemoore

Posted by: Media Relations

Ruby Correa was named Dispatcher of the Year.

She was presented with a plaque by Sheriff’s Support Services Manager Forrest McLean on Saturday, April 14, 2018, during the annual Public Safety Communications Association Dispatcher Appreciation Awards Banquet at Trinity Hall in Lemoore.

Correa has been a 911 Dispatcher at the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office since 2008. She was selected by her peers and supervisors because she is very hard working and dedicated to her job, said Shelby Rhyman, dispatch supervisor. 

In addition to being a team player and helping out wherever she can, Correa is a Dispatch Training Officer. 

“She has received numerous compliments from her trainees,” Rhyman said. “We are very fortunate to have such a great person and dispatcher on our team.”

As a 911 dispatcher for the Sheriff’s Office, Correa answers 911 calls and dispatches on the radio to units for the Sheriff’s Office and for several police departments in Tulare County. Calls for service can range from non-emergency calls to armed robberies, kidnappings, missing children and homicides.

“It’s a wide range of calls that come in on our 911 lines,” she said.

Some of the most serious calls are those involving injury or death.

“[When] somebody’s been shot or a family member’s been injured, the reporting party on the line is often frantic,” Correa said. “As a call taker, I stay calm to help them through their horrible experience.”

She said it’s important for dispatchers to keep the callers on the line so they can keep deputies updated as they arrive on scene.

“I stay calm for both our callers and our deputies on the line,” she said.

The Sheriff’s 911 Dispatch Center has 22 dispatchers and four lead dispatchers, handling approximately 263,000 calls a year. 

Calls are answered by dispatchers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Dispatchers rotate shifts every three months at the Sheriff’s Office including day shift, night shift, weekend days and weekend nights. 

“We all work every single shift,” Correa said.