‘Backbone’ of Lee County 911 tech receives state award

DIXON – Lee County 911′s IT administrator was named the state’s Technician of the Year for his work keeping emergency communication systems running smoothly during widespread changes.

Mike McBride was presented the award from the Illinois Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, or APCO, during the statewide 911 conference in October in Springfield.

McBride was nominated by Lee County 911 Director Shelley Dallas for this contributions to the Emergency Telephone System Board, or ETSB.

“Mike is one of the most dependable, dedicated, reliable persons I’ve ever met, with the best sense of humor I’ve ever witnessed in an IT environment,” she said in the nomination. “With his over 30 years of experience in every aspect of computer hardware and software, he made an immediate contribution to the ETSB when hired in 2020.”

Although 911 and public safety weren’t new to McBride, “he jumped in with both feet, head-first, and fully immersed himself and embraced the ever so evolving world of 911 public safety,” Dallas said.

That includes helping work through challenges after the 911 Emergency Communications Center switched to a new software platform and preparing for an overhaul of public safety software.

“Mike was instrumental and responsible for setting up the training room environment,” she said. “While preparing for the system admin training and end user training, he was also responsible for the installing and training on the servers for the Flexsystem.”

He attended training sessions across several months and managed system interfaces for programs for different departments such as the Dixon Police Department, Lee County Sheriff’s Department and Dixon City FireDepartment

“Mike was, and continues to be, the backbone of the Flex migration. He continues to be the ‘go to’ guy with any software, hardware, connectivity, or network issues,” Dallas said. “He has become a major component of the ETSB infrastructure and doesn’t quit until he has a resolution or finds alternative methods to fix an issue.”

Data conversion, managing interfaces with outside vendors, creating reports for the patrol division, setting up department-specific tables were all an additional work that McBride absorbed during the transition.

He would also sit-in with dispatchers and get insight into their workflow and day-to-day activities to help streamline operations.

“His actions demonstrate commitment to being a more involved and knowledgeable public safety professional administering IT within the ECC,” Dallas said. “He stays late and/or will come in early in order to perform updates and fixes so that interruptions to service is limited, specifically during busy and high call volume times at the 911 Center.”

McBride has become “an invaluable asset” to all public safety agencies within the county, she said.