Emergency 911 dispatchers are essential for a community. They receive calls for help around the clock every day of the week, and work with the callers to understand the situation and need. Then they dispatch law enforcement, firefighters or medical personnel to a scene, and relay vital information to the first responders answering the call.
They have to do all that quickly and efficiently because time is of the essence — sometimes the matter between life and death.
Such calls for help to local 911 dispatchers have increased from 98,009 in 2002 to 155,510 last year — an average of 426 calls per day, or nearly 18 per hour to the 911 center. Dispatchers currently work with 20 public safety agencies.
The 911 center has to make sure that it has sufficient staffing to handle all of the calls. However, in the time the number of calls has increased more than 58 percent, only two additional dispatcher positions have been added. That means dispatchers are having to handle more calls and take on more stressful situations each year.
Currently the 911 center has 24 dispatchers to cover all shifts, times of illness and vacations, and when dispatchers leave for another job. The Bartholomew County Emergency Operations Center director, Todd Noblitt, has proposed adding six additional dispatchers over the next two years to increase staffing to 30 — putting it on the low end of the number of dispatchers the center actually needs (determined to be 29 to 52 based on feedback from local first responders). The hirings would be staggered: two in July, two in January and the final two in July 2020.
The total cost of salaries and benefits to bring on the additional dispatchers, $378,000, would be split between the city (pays 55 percent) and county (45 percent), because both benefit from the 911 center.
This sounds like a reasonable request for the city and county governments to support. Local residents count on first responders arriving in a timely fashion and having accurate information, and 911 dispatchers play a key part in that process.
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