University of Alabama Police Department hosts 911 operators and dispatchers training

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ( WIAT ) — Forty 911 operators and police dispatchers from across Alabama were in Tuscaloosa on Friday learning how to make their communications centers better.

The Denise Amber Lee Foundation provided the training, which the University of Alabama Police Department hosted.

Ashlee Sechrist is a 911 operator from Autauga County 911 and said the training seminar is a good way to learn valuable information to her better deal with emergency situations.

“We were really looking forward to this class as a group from Autauga County 911 due to some of us are new, so we can learn techniques to help prevent tragedies like Denise Amber Lee,” Sechrist said. “This class will be super beneficial to the fact that it shows human error and mistakes happen, and this is going to help us be more confident in our training.”

Lee was abducted from her home in North Port, Florida, in 2008. She was raped and murdered. Even though several calls were made to 911, inefficiencies in a 911 county call center led to police and emergency services arriving too late to save Lee.

“I am presenting the eight-hour training today for 911 dispatchers, which is called the ‘Victim’s Plea,’ which talks about the lessons learned from my wife’s incident that happened back in 2008 when she was kidnapped and murdered in Florida,” Nathan Lee said. “We are highlighting some of the 911 errors that happened.”

Nathan Lee now shares his wife’s story with 911 operators around the country with the hope of promoting public safety through training, standardized protocols and technological advances to the 911 system.

“Losing my wife, obviously, is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with,” Nathan Lee said. “I am very blessed to have this opportunity to do something about it and to see her death not be in vain, and the 911 industry has given me a platform to tell her story and see her make a difference.”

Lee said he is planning to teach more 911 operators his training class later in 2024.

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