Dispatcher of the Year Achieves the American Dream

It is always such a treat to return to the Sheriff’s Communications Center, which to many of us old-timers is still the SRC. I walked through those doors on my first day at the Sheriff’s Department on June 16, 1986. But little did anyone know that nine years later, in the faraway country of Serbia (the former Yugoslavia), Isidora Pejic would enter the world. A few years later, her family would pursue the American dream and come to the U.S. Ultimately, in April 2024, Isidora would be celebrated as the Sheriff’s Communications Center Dispatcher of the Year.

Sheriff Luna, the Pejic family (including Isidora’s mother, a deputy on the Department) and many Department leaders gathered to acknowledge the Public Response Dispatcher II and hear her amazing story. I hope to share more in a future issue of Star & Shield about the inspiring story of the Pejic family and how they became invaluable members of the Sheriff’s Department family.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge the commitment of the many dispatchers who work tirelessly around the clock to provide lifesaving lines of communication for L.A. County residents and LASD personnel in the field. If you didn’t get a chance to thank a dispatcher during National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, it’s never too late to tell them how much they mean to the Department.