Georgetown County 911 manager Susie Tuck reflects on 38 years of dispatching and tech upgrades

Susie Tuck, identified on the county’s First Friday program as the Georgetown County 911 operations manager, recounted nearly four decades in dispatch and described how technology has transformed emergency response.

Tuck said early dispatch work used pen and paper and local four‑digit lines; over time the county consolidated multiple dispatch offices into a central operation and added agencies including sheriff’s office, county fire and municipal police. "May 11 will be my 38th year of dispatching," she said, noting she joined as a teenager and that the work remains a calling.

Tuck highlighted recent technology: the county now accepts text‑to‑911 messages and uses RapidSOS integration to obtain caller location information within seconds, a tool she called especially useful for people lost outdoors or on the water. She estimated the center handles about 200–400 phone calls daily and described a steady increase from the handful of calls the earliest dispatch office answered.

Tuck also discussed training and staffing: she has trained multiple operators who have gone on to train others, and she said the shift work and call volume shape staffing needs. The county is moving into a new 911 facility later this year; Tuck said finishing her career in the new building would be fitting after decades of service.