9-1-1 Dispatcher Stress

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>From Friday's LA Times

Friday, July 14, 2000

Stress Taking Toll on 911 Dispatchers

Emergencies: Ranks are dwindling at many centers. Officials worry

about

slower responses and missed calls by operators who are burned out.

By GAIL DAVIS, Special to The Times

Ventura County's police dispatch centers have an emergency of

their

own--long hours, high stress, limited pay and poor morale.

These factors have combined to decimate the ranks of the women

and men

who respond to the county's 911 and law enforcement calls--to the

point that

some dispatchers are working 80 hours of overtime a month.

Supervisors at the county's eight centers worry that

dispatcher fatigue is

leading to slower responses and missed calls.

Suspects in a recent burglary got away because a Sheriff's

Department

operator--at the end of an extended overtime shift--just didn't see

the request

to dispatch an officer pop up on her screen, said Danita Crombach,

manager

of the sheriff's dispatch center.

, a dispatcher for the Ventura Police / Fire

Emergency

Dispatch Center, also feels the pinch.

" We've been so short sometimes we've had to close our second

frequency, " she said. " I'm reaching the burnout point. I'll get

through it, but

we need more bodies in here. "

Ventura, along with Santa a and other cities, has to

occasionally take

sworn officers off the streets and put them on the phones to meet

the demand.

The dispatcher shortage is not quite as acute in Ventura

County as in Los

Angeles County, where callers to 911 often get a busy signal. But

to prevent

that, local dispatchers sometimes work four to 10 extra hours a

day, for as

much as 80 hours of overtime a month.

The burnout among 911 operators is a nationwide problem and is

worsening as dispatchers are expected to handle more technology.

One study shows that an emergency dispatch operator must be

able to do

hundreds of tasks--from answering the phone and operating a

computer to

telling a child how to administer CPR--at any given time.

At the same time, the number of 911 calls is increasing 10% a

year. Many

are from cell phones, where the caller has accidentally pushed a

preprogrammed button that dials 911. In fact, 40% of the 400 or so

911 calls

the Ventura office of the California Highway Patrol gets daily are

hang-ups,

mistakes or nonemergencies.

* * *

And with a robust economy, fewer people are applying for the

$14-an-hour jobs. And the applicants local departments do attract

are

required to meet the same criteria as would-be police

officers--undergoing

skills tests, 27-page background checks, psychological exams,

medical

checkups and polygraphs--and that is just to get hired.

Then it's six months to learn numerous computer programs, the

criminal

code, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and a battery of other skills.

In a Sheriff's Department recruitment campaign this year, only

one hire

was made out of 79 applicants and months of expensive testing. And

about

one in four new hires quit in the first six months because of

stress, Crombach

said.

Recruiting is so tough that Anne Webb, supervisor of the CHP's

Ventura

dispatch center, carries applications in her purse to pass out to

promising

salesclerks.

Even Simi Valley, the only dispatch department flush with

operators, is

always recruiting, senior dispatcher Marty Mesa said. " Like

everyone else,

we're testing and trying to hire more. "

Solving the problems won't be easy, experts say.

Managers of the county's dispatch centers meet monthly and

discuss the

crisis. Most say higher salaries would make the job more

attractive, but they

have no proof, and police chiefs are skeptical.

" I'm not sure if you paid 25% more that wouldn't still be a

factor, "

Ventura Police Chief Mike said. " To some extent, I think the

job has

become almost too complex. "

Experts nationwide agree that there is no magic bullet.

Ventura County's

dispatch managers are awaiting the findings of a task force

sponsored by the

Florida-based Assn. of Public Safety Communica tions Officials,

hoping for

some usable solutions.

But even task force members aren't sure yet what the results,

due next

month, will show.

Steve Souder, a dispatch administrator in andria, Va.,

heads the

group and says the solution is probably nebulous, involving

scattered

improvements like dividing up tasks, simpler computer programs,

getting

dispatch centers out of basements so operators have windows, better

retirement benefits, more career options, better training and, of

course, more

pay.

" Money is not the only problem, " he said. " There's got to be a

holistic

approach. "

The only police department in Ventura County that has turned

around its

problem is Simi Valley, which has made many of the improvements on

Souder's list.

It has also moved into a new roomy call center with windows

and kitchen

in the $12.5-million police station built two years ago.

That is a dramatic about-face from the mid-1990s, when the

department's

dispatcher shortages ran to 50%, said Lynn Freeman, who manages the

center.

Better retirement benefits would also sweeten the job, some

say.

Steve McClellan, who manages the Ventura County Fire

Department's

center, belongs to a group of fire dispatch managers who want to

change state

laws to give dispatchers the same retirement benefits as law

enforcement

officers. A Sacramento-area agency secured such a deal for its

dispatchers,

and McClellan is hoping to use it as a model.

In the meantime, dispatchers and managers are coping as best

they can.

Crombach lost two more operators this week and expects another

to quit

soon. Her center is already 33% understaffed.

* * *

But the glue holding the centers together is the longtimers

who stay

because they love the adrenaline rush and sense of accomplishment.

Annette , communications manager for the Oxnard police /

fire

dispatch center, said it takes a special person to be a 911

operator.

They have to be able to juggle many tasks, handle the tedium

of long lulls

and thrive on moments of crisis.

And at the end of the day, most take immense satisfaction from

serving the

public, even if it's in an anonymous way.

" Many have a hard time adapting to another kind of job after

awhile

because this is so exciting and fulfilling, " said.

Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times

***************************

Jim Reeves, Jr. KC6YRU ICQ # 884017

Tulare County CA Sheriff's Office 9-1-1/Dispatcher

Web pages at: http://kc6yru.cnetech.com

E-mail to: jimmiejoe@...

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