History-making dispatchers; Bicknell, Hughes receive supervisor award
Oct. 26—Officials were on hand Wednesday at the Cleburne Police Department to present awards to dispatchers Holly Bicknell and Valerie Hughes in honor of both being named the 2020 9-1-1 Supervisor of the Year.
The award, given to both by the North Central Texas Emergency Communication District, also known as NCT9-1-1, represents two historic firsts.
It marked the first time that NCT9-1-1 announced two winners in the same category. Closer to home, it marked the first time any CPD dispatcher has been nominated for, let alone won the award.
"We checked with NCT9-1-1 to make sure and they checked as far back as they could and they didn't find anything," CPD Assistant Chief Linn Goodman said.
Bicknell and Hughes were chosen from among a large pool of peers among other law enforcement agencies.
NCT9-1-1 oversees more than 40 Public Safety Answering Points in 13 counties surrounding the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. NCT9-1-1 supports those PSAPs through maintaining and upgrading 9-1-1 equipment, providing up-to-date mapping information, training 9-1-1 telecommunicators, educating the public on proper usage of 9-1-1 and monitoring PSAP functionality and compliances.
NCT9-1-1 serves a population of 1.7 million residents covering an area of more than 10,000 square miles.
The organization also each year awards individuals and groups who "show an outstanding commitment to the 9-1-1 industry."
Although the awards to Bicknell and Hughes were announced earlier this year, they did not receive their trophies until Wednesday.
Bicknell has worked for CPD since 2011 and Hughes since 2012.
"Holly Bicknell and Valerie Hughes exemplify what it means to be a 9-1-1 supervisor by demonstrating a positive and professional attitude toward their roles and responsibilities," CPD Officer Kerri Abbott said. "They have a working knowledge of all operations and functions expected of their subordinates and demonstrate that knowledge on a regular basis while monitoring staff performance and jumping on the front lines working alongside their subordinates.
"Often times covering shifts to ensure our community has adequate 9-1-1 and dispatch coverage. Over the last year, Holly and Valerie worked approximately 400 hours of overtime to ensure this coverage taking very little personal time off."
Goodman, who oversees CPD communications in addition to other duties, submitted Bicknell and Hughes for consideration of the award.
"Last year was rough because of COVID-19, of course," Goodman said. "But before that even because we experienced the unexpected passing of one of our dispatchers, which really hit the team and the department hard. We lost a couple of dispatchers from that but Holly and Valerie worked hard with our team to help pull everyone through and rebuild," Goodman said.
Although thankful for the recognition, Bicknell and Hughes credit any success to the CPD family.
"We put a lot of hard work in this past year," Hughes said. "We've had a lot of things occur that would probably break a lot of other agencies. But we were able to rebuild, restart and make this a better place and that's because we have a lot of really great people we work with."
Bicknell agreed.
"It was exhausting mentally and physically last year when we had to work so much overtime," Bicknell said. "But we pulled through and we pulled through it together."
Lt. Shane Wickson, who oversees operation of CPD's dispatch, said that, all of that aside, Bicknell and Hughes deserve the recognition bestowed upon them.
"We're all extremely proud of Holly and Valerie," Wickson said. "And that's not just because of how hard they work and everything they've accomplished. It's because telecommunications is an essential part of our team and their efforts drove the success of the entire police department."
Abbott agreed.
"We are proud and honored to have such dedicated professionals working with us to help save lives every day," Abbott said.
