Suffolk County commissioner hosts Father’s Day luncheon for 911 dispatchers

Suffolk County’s Father’s Day thank-you came with lunch in Yaphank, but the bigger story was the 911 operators who stayed at their consoles while other families gathered around holiday tables. Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina hosted the luncheon at the county’s communications center at 102 East Ave, honoring dispatchers who spent the holiday shift answering emergency calls and sending help across the county.

The Yaphank center is more than a call room. Suffolk County describes it as an enhanced 911 facility that handles fire and EMS calls and dispatches units, making it the first point of contact for residents when seconds matter. County officials say the dispatchers working there must be New York State certified emergency medical technicians and national emergency medical dispatchers, a requirement that reflects how much medical judgment and calm decision-making the job demands.

That workload is steady and heavy. Suffolk County says the communications center processed about 155,000 fire and EMS emergencies last year, serving a county that stretches across roughly 900 square miles on Long Island. In a region that county leaders describe as complex and metropolitan in scale, the dispatcher’s role often determines how quickly firefighters, ambulances and other units get moving.

The luncheon also fit a broader pattern of public recognition for telecommunicators. Suffolk County leaders acknowledged dispatchers during National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in April 2025, part of an annual observance held during the second week of April, which ran April 13 to 19 that year. The repeated tributes have put a public face on work that is usually invisible until a crisis hits.

Catalina’s decision to spend Father’s Day with the dispatchers also underscored the leadership path that brought him to the post. He was confirmed as Suffolk County’s 16th police commissioner on Feb. 5, 2025, after County Executive Ed Romaine nominated him and the Legislature approved the appointment at its Feb. 4 general meeting. Before taking over the department, Catalina served as deputy police commissioner and spent 27 years with the NYPD.

He has recently pointed to road safety and violent-crime enforcement as department priorities, but those goals depend on the dispatchers in Yaphank who answer the phone first, assess the emergency and keep the county’s response system moving. On a holiday built around family, Suffolk’s 911 operators were again on duty for everybody else’s.