Regina Pritchard has answered phone calls for 16 years to people in an emergency, needing law enforcement help.
Pritchard was awarded by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office on April 12, 2017 as the Communicator of the Year.
"You're talking to that mother or that father, you feel their pain,” said Pritchard, a 911 dispatcher for PBSO.
The award is part of the National Telecommunications Public Safety, declared by Congress.
“They're on the other side on the phone crying to you and wanting you to help them, asking you for help and behind a phone the only help that we can do is send the deputies, send the ambulance,” said Pritchard.
Pritchard was chosen for her quick thinking and intuition when she answered a call from the Broward Sheriff’s Office asking for a welfare check on a woman in suburban Boca Raton.
The call stood out to Pritchard as unusual, so she says she spent 45 minutes investigating to learn the woman was wanted as a person of interest in a homicide.
"Instead of just having a deputy go knock on the door and, hey are you feeling ok today? We were able to set up on the house, have our helicopter out, and detain her for Broward to question her," said Pritchard.
PBSO Sheriff Ric Bradshaw personally thanked all the dispatchers for their hard work.
He said April 6 and 7 were especially busy days for the dispatchers because the president and Chinese president were in town.