Emergency Communications Center commemorates 30th anniversary, recognizes longtime dispatcher for service

In December of 1994 DGSO Dispatcher Edna Brubaker sits at a desk in a small room equipped with a computer, radio and phone, and she punches a card to track updates for the lone Douglas County Deputy that is on duty for the shift.

The deputy has just completed a traffic stop and has provided her with a location, vehicle description and the driver’s information. She writes all of this down by hand, paying close attention to every detail to ensure it is correct. 

Fast forward 30 years and Brubaker is sitting at a dispatch console equipped with 10 monitors, multiple computers and state-of-the-art technology designed to help her perform her job. She is now a shift supervisor, leading and guiding the next generation of 911 emergency professionals who commit to being a first responder to members of our community.

The Douglas County Emergency Communications Center on Dec. 31 will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the consolidation of the city and county dispatchers that occurred in 1994.

Previously, dispatchers worked for the Lawrence Police Department and Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, and a computer would switch emergency calls placed from either inside Lawrence or from the county to the appropriate dispatch team.

“Establishing the Emergency Communications Center 30 years ago has turned out to be a wise decision in many ways, including that it connected the public safety community in Douglas County through the same voices of trained professionals who take those calls, keep people calm and get first responders the vital information we need to help save people and protect the community,” Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister said. “It was done in the name of efficiency and ensuring consistent services across the county, and we should celebrate how we have achieved that.” 

The decision to consolidate also formed the Douglas County Emergency Communications Center as a means to add efficiency and ensure a consistent emergency services in the county, which has grown in population by more than 30,000 people since then.

Over 30 years, those goals have played out as the ECC staff has consistently displayed teamwork in public safety dispatching to first responders both in the city and county in both daily emergency calls and large events and disaster responses over the years.

"Thirty years ago, leaders decided to take an ambitious step into the unknown, to consolidate the public safety dispatching services operated by separate entities into the Douglas County Emergency Communications Center,” ECC Director Tony Foster said. “I hope that those leaders had the opportunity to see what this agency has become, not only an agency that is successful in its mission of supporting all public safety agencies in the county but to, in many facets, help support all of the dispatch centers in the state."

“I am excited to celebrate the anniversary of the consolidation and creation of the ECC. It gives us a chance to reflect upon and appreciate where we came from, and to look to the future of where we want to go,” ECC Deputy Director Sonya Baeza said. “I believe that it is vitally important to share the stories and experiences of those who built the foundation of this agency and of those who continue to serve and devote their lives to this incredible, challenging and rewarding profession.  I am beyond proud of the work that our team does and to be able to serve them as one of their leaders.”

The anniversary is also a time to celebrate Brubaker’s career, said Armbrister and Undersheriff Stacy Simmons, and share memories of when she was one of the primary dispatchers for deputies patrolling the county. Armbrister recalls communicating with Brubaker the night of the deadly 2005 Boardwalk Apartments fire and asking for more help: “I could hear tears in her voice. I knew she truly was doing all she could to help me and us.”

“When my girls were little and I’d be going to work, I’d put on my uniform and part of saying goodbye to the girls, I’d point to my equipment and they’d tell me what it was… gun, badge, pen, handcuffs, etc. when I’d point at my radio, they’d say, ‘that’s where you talk to Edna!’” Armbrister said. “Around this same time, one daughter and I were checking out at Walmart, and Edna walked up to say hi. I told my daughter ‘this is the Edna I talk to at work!’  She looked at her like she was seeing a mythical creature…. It was adorable!”

Simmons started with the Sheriff’s Office in 1998 when Edna was primarily assigned to dispatch for deputies.

“I didn’t have a single call for service or car stop where I felt like I was alone. It gets dark and desolate on some of our county roads at 3 a.m. with back units 15 minutes away,” Simmons said. “I knew Edna was always listening, knew my location and was working on information in the background I had not even asked for to keep me safe and informed.  I will never be able to quantify the number of times that information changed the way I handled a situation potentially saving my life. I am confident saying the reason I am here today is because Edna was my guardian angel for so many years.”

When Brubaker was asked about what has changed in her 30 years of public service, she had many examples to share, including the evolution of where phone calls come from. When she first started nearly every call came from a landline or payphone, now most calls come from a cellphone.

Despite all the changes, there is one thing that has remained constant: Edna got into this career to make a difference. 

She has remained committed to that for more than 31 years, celebrating her anniversary on Dec. 13 of this year.  

“You have to love your job and care about people to make it in this field,” she said.

Brubaker has received numerous awards during her career for being the voice on the line to citizens and first responders in the city and county during emergencies.  She’s taken calls she’ll never forget, for people she’ll likely never meet. 

“Dispatchers are truly the unsung heroes of the first-responder profession,” said Sgt. Dale Flory, who has spent 28 years with the Sheriff’s Office. “While all dispatchers foster a sense of safety and security in their field staff, Edna’s experience and intuition is unmatched.”

Lt. Rita Fulton-Mays said her voice was often the first connection deputies would hear for several hours as they were patrolling in the night.

“During midnight shift, every night between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m., dispatch would tone out ‘county units 10-17 checking.’ Most of the time it was Edna, and they would do a roll call of all county officers to make sure we made it through the night safely. All four of us would respond when our unit number was called,” Fulton-Mays said.

Armbrister said Brubaker used to put out an “attempt to locate” on Christmas Eve for a “guy in a sleigh and reindeer passing through the county yelling ho-ho-ho,” but was later told not to do that “unless they got a call from someone” about it. 

“So, a citizen in a patrol car called it in one night,” Armbrister said, “so they could keep that tradition alive.”