HIGH-STRESS HERO: Heralded Northville Twp. 911 lifesaver retires

Dialing 911 in the Northville community will never be the same.

Dispatcher Steve Przybyla, a Northville Township Public Safety Officer (PSO), retired Dec. 17 after 25 years of assisting thousands during high-stress situations.

While he’s never kept a spreadsheet on it, he has given or helped a colleague provide instructions for CPR about twice a month, which works out to more than 600 times in his career.

He’s also worked with five different police chiefs and three different fire chiefs.

“I’ve experienced a lot of history here,” PSO Przybyla said.

Multi-faceted professional

He also works with two different communities. Northville Township operates a Public Safety Answering Point (Dispatch), which receives emergency and non-emergency calls for Northville Township and the City of Northville. PSOs are the first public safety employee the public encounters in an emergency.

In 2022, Dispatch processed 35,196 total calls.

PSO Przybyla’s key strength is his ability to multi-task while listening, he said.

“As a dispatcher, you don’t know what’s going to happen from minute to minute,” he said. “And when things start going sideways, you’re the one that has to make decisions and have some sort of plan, however rudimentary it is.”

Poise under pressure

That came into play early in his career when developers were building new neighborhoods on Six Mile between Ridge and Beck roads. A spark while welding ignited a home under construction. The wind was blowing wildly that day, so it ignited a second house, then a third and a fourth, Przybyla explained.

“There was no address there, he said. “It was just Six mile and Beck Road, so I sent the Fire Department out the best I could have for a multiple-structure blaze.”

Firefighters have a special place in Przybyla’s heart. That’s because he was a volunteer one for Milford for 20 years, a career he did concurrently while working as a Northville dispatcher.

He left in 2018 because of time constraints and a life-changing scene that unfolded in front of him. Fox2Detroit reporter Ron Savage, who was also a volunteer firefighter, died in front of him while at a training session.

Firefighting background helped

Przybyla administered lifesaving measures and it was to no avail. Savage passed away.

His firefighter background made him an even better 911 dispatcher, said Northville Township Deputy Police Chief Matthew MacKenzie. Because he knows what key information is critical in medical emergencies, he asks the right questions and is able to visualize the scene, which he conveys with first responders.

But that’s not his superpower.

“He was very calm on the radio and over the phone,” Deputy Police Chief MacKenzie said. “Often people are in a frantic state when they call. Steve’s voice and demeanor stayed consistently calm” during high-stress situations.

Przybyla has been helping others since enlisting in the Navy, where he was a jet mechanic. While stationed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, he found a way to regularly leave base by volunteering for the town’s rescue squad, which trained him to be an EMT.

Looking forward to cruising

When he returned to Detroit after the Navy, he worked as an EMT for a private ambulance company. He took on extra work there and learned to become a dispatcher. He joined Northville Township in 1998 as a dispatcher. His title was later changed to PSO.

He retired to enjoy the freedom of having no set schedule and to travel with his wife, Pam, and their sons Zachary, 24, and Benjamin, 18. He has taken 13 cruises and will go on another in the spring to celebrate his retirement and his youngest
son’s high school graduation.

“What I like about cruises is it’s an opportunity to completely disconnect from electronics, from phone calls, from everything, and just be able to relax,” he said.

He will further satisfy his wanderlust by working part-time as a bus driver for Indian Trails to supplement his income.

“While I’ll miss the people here, I’ve been stuck in a building for 25 years,” he said. “There’s more outside these walls.”

He’s answering the call to explore more.

Special thanks to Northville Township Communications Specialist Rene Wisely for contributing this article to SocialHouseNews.com.