Emergency calls in Bartholomew County went up across-the-board in 2023.
The E911 Emergency Operations Center, which dispatches first responders for more than 20 public agencies, is among the first public safety departments locally to provide an overview of their activities last year and compare them with the previous year.
Located at 131 S. Cherry St., the E911 center handled 40,303 emergency calls last year, which is only 30.5% of the 132,000 total calls. But center director Todd Noblitt said that is expected because many callers don’t know either the non-emergency number nor the correct agency to call.
He encourages residents to program the center’s non-emergency number (812-379-1689) into their phones in order to not tie up emergency lines.
The service that experienced the largest jump in usage last year was “text-to-911.” The 6,745 different text exchanges is 44% higher than the previous year, Noblitt said.
Established in Bartholomew County in 2016, text-to-911 was created to assist someone in trouble who is not in a position to talk on a phone. Dispatchers have pre-prepared texts with questions that allow them to quickly ascertain if there is an emergency and what help is needed, Noblitt said.
Recently, text-to-911 allowed police to rescue a mother and her children from a house where they were confronted by an assailant, he said.
“Text 911 is a fantastic tool under appropriate situations, so we always like to tap that service that is offered throughout the state,” Noblitt said.
Calls to summon a fire department totaled 16,671 last year – a 25.1% increase from calls made the previous year, the center director said.
Requests for law enforcement constitute the largest number of calls received, Noblitt said. The 104,076 requests for an officer was 11.8% more than all of 2022, Noblitt said.
Animal control calls for both the county and city are also handled by the 911 Center. The 3,979 animal-related calls represent about a 5% increase over the previous year, he said. There was also a slight increase in calls from individuals requesting emergency medical services, Noblitt said.
A 911 dispatcher is an important link in emergency situations, trying to keep distressed callers on the line to gather as much information as possible, as well as to calm the person down until a first-responder arrives at the scene. In Bartholomew County, a new emergency dispatcher receives more than 600 hours of training. In addition, all dispatchers are required to take approximately 1,200 hours of training on subjects ranging from suicide intervention to swatting calls, Noblitt said.
In July, 2020, the Indiana General Assembly voted to reclassify dispatchers as professional first responders. Their job is considered one of the most strenuous today, requiring them to be subjected to great stress, as well as work overtime, weekends and holidays, Noblitt said. Burnout, exhaustion and comparatively low pay caused a significant turnover that left only 18 dispatchers by the second half 2022, he said.
However, after changes that included salary increases, there are now 30 dispatchers in Columbus. The turnaround began in August 2022, when the Bartholomew County Council agreed to raise the beginning salary of a dispatcher to $43,500, as well as provide additional money for those working the least desirable shifts.
Over the past year, the center received outstanding marks following audits from both the FBI and the Indiana State Police, Noblitt said. Another audit conducted by the statewide 911 board gave the dispatch center in Columbus a perfect score for cyber readiness, he said.
