Thursday, September 16, 2004
If you've ever had need to call the Georgetown Police Department, there's a good chance the voice on the other end of the line was Bonnie Silva. Silva, one of the department's full-time dispatchers and a reserve officer as well, has been a fixture in the department for roughly two decades.
Silva started her public safety career as a member of Georgetown's all-call fire department in 1979. Eventually the lifelong Georgetown resident pursued an opening as a reserve dispatcher, and later joined the force full-time.
"It was an opportunity to help the community," Silva said.
Part of her job as dispatcher is keeping the caller calm enough to get all the information needed by officers en route to the situation. This isn't always the easiest thing, as panic often sets in on the other end of the line.
"You can definitely hear it in the caller's voice," Silva said. "You've got to stay calm and get as much relevant information as you can - not just for the safety of the person on the phone, but for the officers we're sending in there."
While everyone knows the action outside the station can be hectic for the officers on the road, things can become intense in the dispatcher's chair as well - particularly when multiple medical calls light up at the same time. Silva recalls one day when not one but two head-on motor vehicle accidents happened on opposite ends of town.
Silva also spends her fair share of time in a cruiser as a reserve officer. While she said she enjoys all the parts of her duties with the department, she finds her shifts on the road a pleasant change of pace.
"It's nice to be in the cruiser, out in the community," she said.
While she's collected many memories on the job, one that stands out was the night she, in the role of EMT, helped a new member of the community come into this world. Silva, along with several other members of the department, answered a medical aid call for a mother-to-be in labor. Realizing there wouldn't be enough time to get the mother to the hospital, she and her fellow public safety staffers delivered the baby in the Tiger Row home.
"Obviously the mother does most of the work," Silva said.
Silva has a large number of family members in town - her parents live next door to her, and her mother, one of 10 children, has the majority of her siblings still living in Georgetown - and it was a family connection that led Silva to push for a change in the department.
When her father was diagnosed with a heart condition, she took it upon herself to meet with the previous chief of police to urge him to install defibrillators in the department's cruisers.
"Nine times out of 10, it's a cruiser that is the first responder in a medical emergency," Silva said.
At the time, the department purchased two defibrillators - and this year, after several generous donations and grants, there are five such machines in the department's vehicles. Silva, who teaches CPR to new reserve officers, said the machines are becoming such a necessity that standard CPR classes include training to use defibrillators.
"The American Heart and Lung Association said they will eventually become so readily available, they'll be like fire extinguishers," Silva said.
Over the next few months, the Record will profile the staff of the Georgetown Police Department in order to introduce its members to the community. This is the latest in that series.
 
This article originally appeared in the Georgetown Record on Thursday, September 16, 2004 , by Matt Phillion/ Mphillio@Cnc.Com.
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