WPCC assistant dean working to enhance 911 operator training

Between phone calls and finalizing graduations, Western Piedmont Community College’s Assistant Dean of Health and Public Services Bryan Christy, also the director of Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET), took a few minutes to reflect on his career, discuss current work with the college, and look ahead to projects in the coming year.

Christy is expanding the capabilities of 911 call-center training, hoping to adjust the current “sink-or-swim” process for new operators entering the workforce, beginning next semester.

“We’re also currently working on the off-site telecommunications project here,” Christy said. “We’re about to become a backup 911 center for Burke 911, which is also going to involve the inception of a telecommunications academy to train new communicators to be able to not just be thrown into the mix when their job starts, but to be able to actually have some practical time before they start. Kind of like we did with the BLET and fire services.”

Christy said his team is in the construction phase for the backup 911 center now, converting an old print shop on campus into an emergency communications complex. He said WPCC is the only college in the state to operate a backup 911 center.

According to Christy, every education path he manages, from BLET to fire services to EMS, has clinical time involved. Law enforcement students are exposed to real-life police scenarios, firefighting students work with live fires in a simulation and fire training center, and EMS students are placed in hospitals and ambulances.

The director also recently wrapped up the fourth session of law enforcement training since the program expanded from 640 hours to 860 hours.

“It involves 40% of hands-on practical training, which was substantially different from the old BLET,” Christy said. “We actually piloted that for the first two sessions in 2024. Before it was released to the public, we were doing it here, able to make some changes, able to make recommendations. Which, I think if you’re going to train and you want it done right, if you don’t put yourself in a position to make changes and to be a part of that, then you really can’t complain about what comes toward you.”

Although Christy eventually earned his stripes in the educational arena, his passion for the work is what led him to teaching it to begin with.

Growing up in McDowell County, Christy felt at home in public service, drawing from his personal experiences to plan for his career.

“I’ve always had a — I guess you would call it a servant’s heart,” Christy said. “Caring for people was just something that came very naturally for me as a child, as a young adult. My dad was very sick for many years. I was actively involved in helping take care of him from the time, really, I was 8 years old until he passed away when I was 19.”

Following his father’s passing, Christy began EMS work in McDowell before transferring to Burke County in 1986.

“I transitioned to Burke County’s EMS because when I got my paramedic certification and started functioning, they had just gone paramedic in Burke County,” Christy said. “They hired me to help with their training as their new paramedics came up. I switched over to law enforcement after about six years.”

Christy had a few officer friends and wanted to see what BLET was all about, so he signed up and attended classes after his work shifts.

Upon completion of the classes, the public safety director in Morganton recruited Christy to help expand Morganton Public Safety’s first responder training program.

“That was kind of my door into law enforcement,” Christy said.

Teaching at Western Piedmont since 1988, Christy has seen his fair share of new faces going into the force, and he doesn’t take any for granted.

“It’s having an active hand in the quality of the people who are going to be caring for people here in Burke County,” he said. “When you lose the caring element, you might as well go AI and just program machines. Teaching people to do the skills but teaching people also to have compassion and do it with a caring servant’s heart is what drives me. ... We see people at their worst time, and try to make the best of what could potentially be the worst life situation they’ve ever been involved in.”