Last week was National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, recognizing the work of the dispatchers behind the scenes.

"They really are kind of the heart of the department," Petersburg Police Chief Kelly Swihart said. "We could not function without them."

Dispatchers prepare emergency responders for the situations they're about to head into, and do what they can over the phone to keep callers calm. Sometimes they have to provide instructions like how to do CPR.

Working with such sensitive information, Robert "Doc" Lopez, who's been a dispatcher for 21 years, said they "do everything we can...