Washington State Telecommunicator of the Year 2006

Sheriff John Didion and Judy Indermark

Pacific County E911 Telecommunicator Judy Indermark, Chosen as Washington State Telecommunicator of the Year for Exemplary Handling of a Critical Incident

Each year the Washington State Chapter of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials selects those individuals within the 911 industry who exemplify the quality of outstanding service to their community. The award bestowed Judy Indermark of Pacific County Communications, recognizes the Telecommunicator who handled a critical incident in an exemplary manner that positively affected its outcome.

The particular incident for which Judy was nominated involved an overturned vessel. Two individuals were sitting on top of the hull of a Boston Whaler, calling from a cell phone 18 - 25 miles off the mouth of Willapa Bay. At 0949 hours, one individual reported that their boat had capsized and that they had been in the water to retrieve the cell phone. The subjects were unable to provide an accurate location of their boat. Judy kept the callers on line, understanding that the cell phone was wet and the battery was being used up in doing so. The calling party was able to tell Judy that they were in the general area where a charter boat from Westport, WA, the Ms. Magoo, had fished the day prior. Judy notified the Coast Guard, contacted Ocean Charters of Westport, and through the charter office, was able to contact the skipper of the Ms. Magoo. The skipper provided a latitude and longitude in order to initiate a USCG search of the area. The USCG initially overflew the overturned boat, and did not see the calling parties. At this point the cell phone battery was rapidly dying, however the subjects reported having seen the Coast Guard helicpoter. Judy contacted the USCG with this information and at 1021 hours the helicopter and overturned boat made contact.

Judy worked hard at thinking of innovative ways to locate the calling parties. She made every effort to call numerous businesses, government agencies, all while keeping the calling party on the line. Contacting private business and persisting in locating the skipper of the charter boat influenced the outcome of the incident. Judy could have assumed that pursing these avenues of information would not be successful, but she was willing to try anything in order to save the lives of the fishermen.

In addition, none of the responding agencies were agencies for whom Pacific County Communications provides dispatch services. Judy recognized this as a life and death situation and despite the fact that this was not within the agency’s jurisdiction worked to save the lives of two individuals.

It is highly unusual for fishermen in this type of circumstance to experience a postive outcome. Judy created a difference, in that the fishermen's only line of contact was with her. Many telecommunicators see this type of activity as part and parcel of everyday business, and do not recognize themselves as doing anything outstanding, when in truth the work they do each day is critical to the lives of the residents of Pacific County and Washington State.

I believe this is a particularly outstanding example of the handling of a critical incident and am gratified that Judy is being recognized as having gone beyond the "call of duty" in influencing a positive outcome for the parties involved.

Judy will be honored at the Washington State APCO Summer Training Conference, on June 22, 2006, in Wenatchee, WA. This is not the first time a Pacific County telecommunicator has been honored as Washington State Telecommunicator of the Year. Larry Henneman, was honored with the same award in June of 1998.