Crisis Negotiations Training in Montgomery County

On June 11, 2025, the Virginia Chapter of APCO sponsored a free training class for telecommunicators across Virginia.  The class was “Crisis Negotiations for Telecommunicators” and focused on callers in crisis, stress, suicide, and provided tools for telecommunicators to better handle these calls.

Over 25 students from Loudoun Co, Craig Co, City of Roanoke, New River Valley, Radford PD, Waynesboro, Martinsville-Henry, Fauquier Co, and Twin County Regional attended and the mixture of different agencies provided for great learning opportunities and discussion throughout the day.  Our Virginia based APCO Adjunct Instructors, Joell Kight (Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office) and Holly Bowen (Carolina Recording Systems) donated their time to teach this course for the Chapter. 

The course was an 8-hour day held at the New River Valley 911 Center in Montgomery County.  We appreciate their hospitality in helping to bring training to their area of the state.  Lunch was provided for the students, courtesy of our Commercial Advisory Committee and the Diamond Sponsors, Motorola, ID Networks, Intrado, AT&T First Net, L3 Harris, Carolina Recording Systems, and Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

The Virginia APCO Chapter continues to sponsor courses at different locations throughout the state, so that our telecommunicators have access to additional learning opportunities.