St. Charles County Emergency Communications employees Dwayne Kinley and Mike Fridley recently were recognized for exceptional work in their field at the 2022 Missouri Public Safety Communications Conference (MPSCC) held this month in Branson. Kinley, manager of the County’s Radio Systems and Technology Division, received the Radio Technologist of the Year award, and Fridley, a system engineer, was recognized as Information Technologist of the Year.

Nominees are reviewed and awardees are chosen by members of the Missouri 911 Directors Association, Missouri Chapters of the Association of Public Safety Officials (APCO), and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). Awards are given in eight categories.

“Despite staff shortages, both Dwayne and Mike have led their teams with innovation and excellence,” says St. Charles County Director of Emergency Communications Jeff Smith. “It is rewarding for our entire team to have them recognized on a statewide level by these respected organizations.”

Kinley has worked for the County for 12 years and oversees the countywide P25 digital radio and microwave systems which are integrated with five other counties in Missouri and Illinois. Additionally, he and his team oversee the maintenance of all mobile and portable radios for client agencies.

Fridley, who has been employed by the County for 2 years, manages the department’s IT functions for all systems and databases in the Emergency Operations Center and at the County’s backup facility. Among other responsibilities, his team maintains the countywide phone system utilized by dispatch staff and field agencies and manages 9-1-1 addressing and street naming.

Dispatchers across St. Charles County answered more than 137,807 9-1-1 calls in 2021 in an average time of 3.6 seconds. More than 98 percent of the time, the calls were answered within 10 seconds. Approximately half of all calls were answered by St. Charles County Department of Emergency Communications dispatchers.

Mike Fridley

Dwayne Kinley