September 29, 2020
St. Charles County, Missouri – Brian Garms, Training and Quality Assurance Officer for the St. Charles County Emergency Communications Department, was selected for the 2020 Trainer of the Year Award by NICE Public Safety. Garms was honored as part of NICE’s annual Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP)’s Finest Awards. Winners are selected by a panel of volunteer judges from the public safety community who evaluated nominees based on accomplishments, skills, knowledge and dedication. Recipients will be recognized on a date to be determined in a special virtual awards presentation on NICE’s social media (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn).
“I am grateful to be part of a department and public safety community that recognizes the care and effort involved with our profession,” Garms says. “It’s a reflection of the support I receive from the department as a whole and the teamwork it takes to ensure dispatchers, first responders and citizens can connect safely in emergencies.”
Garms started working with St. Charles County in January 2014 as a fire and EMS dispatcher before switching to his role as Training and Quality Assurance Officer in 2018. His duties include planning and teaching police, fire and EMS Dispatch Academies; training new hires; coordinating continuing education; and updating evaluation methods, presentations and training manuals. Garms assists with policy and procedure development and organizing training related to software updates. In addition to instructor and quality assurance certifications, Garms is certified as an Emergency Number Professional (ENP) and in the Center Manager Certification Program (CMCP).
“Brian is certainly an asset to our department and the dispatch field,” says Jeff Smith, Director of St. Charles County Emergency Communications. “This recognition showcases his dedication to his work and to sharing his expertise with others.”
Emergency Communications provides dispatching services for all fire and EMS agencies within St. Charles County, the St. Charles County Police Department, and the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department, and serves the community as one of six dispatching centers and 911 answering points located in the county.
Earlier in 2020, Emergency Communications was awarded Public Safety Communications Accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA®). It is only the third public safety communications department in the St. Louis area, and the fourth in the state, to receive this prestigious accreditation. In 2018, the Department of Emergency Communications was recognized as the world’s 252nd Medical Accredited Center of Excellence (ACE) by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch. The department is one of 190 currently accredited ACE agencies recognized for exceptional use of emergency medical dispatch (EMD) protocols. Learn more about the department at sccmo.org/EmergencyCommunications.