FARMINGTON -- Davis County Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Rose may wear a badge, but he knows what it takes to dispatch calls, as well as the technology behind the calls.
Rose, 28, has been selected as the 2010 Public Safety Answering Point Finest Technician. He will receive the national award in August, after it is announced at the National Association of Public Safety Communication Officials conference in Houston. The award is sponsored by Neptune Intelligent Computer Engineering.
"I won't be going," Rose said. "It's not in the budget."
Tom Norvelle, the Davis County Sheriff's dispatch center manager, nominated Rose for the award after Rose received the state's APCO Technician of the Year award.
Norvelle describes Rose as "a bookworm. He's always reading something, and he remembers it."
Rose had worked in the telecommunications field and decided he wanted a career change. He got hired as a full-time dispatcher with Weber Area Consolidated Dispatch Center in 2003. He then enrolled in paramedic school and was hired by Davis County Sheriff's Office in 2005.
He now works as a part-time dispatcher with the Weber dispatch center and is a full-time deputy/paramedic with Davis County Sheriff's Office.
An opening for a training coordinator with Davis County Sheriff's Office came up about a year ago. Because of his interest in technology and the work he was doing on his own time to help the dispatch center, Davis County sheriff's administration hired him to supervise training and to help with the technology in the office.
Norvelle said it was Rose who "overhauled our communications system from top to bottom during the last year."
Norvelle said too many times law enforcement agencies end up hiring computer technicians who "have no idea what we do as officers or what we do as dispatchers."
Having Rose know what officers need, as well as what dispatchers do, is a huge benefit, Norvelle said.
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