Fw: 911 dispatchers look for some emergency help

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Police Technology/Information Update!

911 dispatchers look for some emergency help

By Neff and Peltz

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO - A job description that includes double shifts, angry and

frightened callers, and life-and-death decisions has proved an

increasingly

tough sell for local governments seeking emergency dispatchers.

Add to the mix modest pay and a tight labor market, and a shortage of

employees has grown at the heart of law enforcement, fire and emergency

medical services around Chicago and the nation.

After losing four of six dispatchers hired this year, Cook County

sheriff's

police launched an advertising campaign seeking help. In Schaumburg,

Ill.,

where 12 dispatchers worked 420 hours of overtime last month, officials

approved a $2,000 signing bonus to attract new dispatchers.

At the Northwest Central Dispatch System, which handles 911 calls for

eight

suburban police and fire departments, the full complement of 45 positions

has not been filled recently.

" It's a problem all over; there's not as many applicants as there used to

be, " said Greg Bishop, executive director of Chicago's Office of

Emergency

Communication. " We're in competition with the economy. Also, it's not a

standard 9-to-5 job. "

Knight Ridder

Chapter 11: Call Taking Techniques, some of the reading materials used in

Public Safety 102, a class at Elgin Community College in Elgin, Illinois.

That agency, which runs the city's 911 emergency-communications systems

and

provides all police, fire and emergency medical dispatching, has not been

able to fill 25 of its 575 jobs, Bishop said. The office depends on

employees working overtime.

The difficulty hiring and retaining dispatchers has led some communities

to

raise wages and try innovative scheduling. This fall Wheeling negotiated

a

15 percent pay raise over four years for its radio operators, according

to

police Sgt. Bill Stutzman. Dispatchers are now paid a starting salary of

just over $32,000 per year and reach a top salary of just over $43,000.

Rolling Meadows switched to the four-days-on, four-days-off schedule last

year in the hope of attracting more dispatchers, according to Deputy

Police

Chief Larsson. The effort proved successful, he said; the city

now

has a full staff of eight dispatchers and one supervisor.

In Schaumburg, dispatchers fielded about 200,000 calls and sent out

65,000

dispatches last year, a number that officials predict will rise when the

department begins accepting cellular-phone calls directly. Last summer

the

village had a staff of 24 on paper - but 13 in reality, according to

Tapke, who manages the communications center.

Officials agreed in August to give new dispatchers a $2,000 signing

bonus.

The starting salary was also raised from $31,000 a year to $36,000 and

maximum pay rose from $45,000 to $52,000.

Schaumburg, too, plans to start a four-on, four-off schedule. Those

changes

immediately attracted inquiries, and seven candidates are now training

for

the job.

Some cities in Southern California have recently found themselves forced

to

take sworn officers off the streets to fill in for their thinning ranks

of

civilian dispatchers. In Kansas City last winter, many 911 callers were

greeted with recordings asking them to hold.

Traditionally, dispatchers have learned their trade on the job, but that

is

changing amid the shortages. At the urging of police agencies, Elgin

Community College started offering classes this year to train dispatchers

in

criminal justice, stress management, self-defense and diction.

West Dundee Police Chief Ignacio Pena, interim criminal-justice

coordinator

for the college, said he thought the program would help the profession.

" There is a lot of stress connected with this, and the turnover rate is

high, " Pena said. " Our thought is if we can give them more information

and

support going into this, they can be more prepared to deal with it. "

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