Every incident commander and firefighter knows the effects of understaffing on the scene. Vital tasks are delayed, and strategies and tactics are amended to account for the lack of personnel. There is, however, another critical aspect of the operation that is not on the fireground itself but is continually suffering from personnel shortages—your dispatch center. And deficiencies here can be just as hazardous to your health.
How bad is it?
A search of the term “9-1-1 dispatcher shortage” yields over 300,000 returns, with stories from centers both large and small located throughout the United States. Many facilities are short-staffed by a significant number of people, not just one or two.
According to union officials in York County, PA, where there is an authorized complement of 86, the actual number of telecommunicators is just 30. In August 2017, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that only 105 of the 180 slots in the city’s 9-1-1 center were filled, and many individuals were on leave or still in training. Since then, a massive effort has helped to narrow the gap, but as of this writing they are still not completely staffed.
Even when a center is at “full strength,” it often barely meets minimum serviceability. Earlier this year, Savannah, GA, emergency communications drew criticism for slow answer times after a vehicle crashed into a crowded restaurant. Although resources were dispatched promptly on the first call, a logjam at the 9-1-1 center ensued as many people dialed in to report the same accident. A visible incident, no matter how minor, can quickly generate more calls than there are people to answer them. This problem has been escalating for as long as cell phones have been in widespread use.
Tackling the problem
These deficits, and their impact upon service, have not gone unnoticed. In 2000, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) created its first Staffing Task Force to address the issue. This led to Project RETAINS (Responsive Efforts To Address Integral Needs in Staffing), which involved both APCO and University of Denver faculty. This team developed a toolkit enabling 9-1-1 agencies to calculate the number of personnel required to provide service. Project RETAINS has since evolved into the Professional Communications Human Resources Taskforce (Pro-CHRT), which addresses training and certification in addition to equitable wages and benefits. In 2003, the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) released the PSAP Staffing Guidelines Report, which generated personnel and budgetary models based upon collected data.
Additionally, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) speaks to the issue in Standard 1221, calling for “sufficient telecommunicators available to effect the prompt receipt and processing of alarms,” but the standard stops short of stating how this determination is to be made. It further specifies that, “When requested by the incident commander, a telecommunicator shall be dedicated to the incident and relieved of other duties within the communications center.” This requirement is becoming increasingly hard to meet, and I caution all first responders not to automatically assume that someone is assigned to listen.
Despite the presence of existing guidelines, there has been little relief. The unfortunate truth is that few, if any, of these guidelines, carry regulatory weight. All too often agencies rely on comparisons to others in their region with regard to the number and compensation of employees without any proof of validity. This leads to repeating the same staffing mistakes and the continuation of salary and benefit inequities.
One of the core principles of the Pro-CHRT report is that, “9-1-1 public safety communications personnel should be paid a fair and equitable wage and receive benefits commensurate with the mission-critical life-saving nature of the job they perform each day, while working cohesively in providing services to and in support of Law Enforcement, Fire-Rescue and Emergency Medical Service providers.” That was written in 2015. In 2017, attempts were made to have the Federal Office of Management and Budget reclassify the position of telecommunicator from the Administrative Support category to Protective Services. Despite the fact that a number of jobs, such as crossing and security guards, fall within the latter, the request was denied.
While this denial in itself is not at the center of the problem, it does highlight a concern. The mean annual wage of a Protective Service employee is $45,810. The annual wage for an Administrative Support worker is $34,050, a full $3,000 less each year than the average American. While 9-1-1 dispatchers fared a little better at $38,870, air traffic controllers—a position to which their duties are often compared—averaged $122,410.
The rigors of the job also often go unaddressed. Studies have shown that dispatchers, like firefighters, can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Technologies such as Next Generation 9-1-1, which will deliver photos and streaming videos of emergencies to their consoles, will only increase their exposure. And personnel at every dispatch center I managed were lumped in with the general municipal staff when it came to benefits. This provided little incentive for anyone to take or to continue a more stressful job working nights, weekends and holidays.
Instead of seeking a cure, attention is frequently turned to treating the symptoms. Because of the protracted learning curve involved with communications, departments often focus on speeding up the training of new hires rather than slowing down migration. Certainly, training should be provided in an expeditious manner, but to look solely toward the replenishment of staff is like “fixing” the leak in your pool by trying to fill it faster. The retention of experienced telecommunicators has a much greater impact and should have first priority.
Technology, too, has taken its toll. Where landlines once provided accurate locations of emergencies, wireless devices oftentimes supply something less. Combine this with the rise of scripted protocols and more time is spent on the telephone. Hand-me-down cell phones, capable of emergency dialing only, are difficult, if not impossible to trace, and reports indicate that anywhere between 10 and 50 percent of 9-1-1 calls are accidental. Trunked radio systems provide firefighters with expanded communications paths, but geometrically increase the number of channels that dispatchers must monitor. In short, fewer people are doing more work.
The solution
The creation of new studies and buzzwords will do nothing to cure this pandemic. A treatment of higher salary, better benefits, adequate staffing, and technology that works with—not against—the telecommunicator, is what the doctor ordered. Anything less is as effective as putting Band-Aids on cancer—and as deadly.
Barry Furey
BARRY FUREY, who is a Firehouse Contributing Editor, provides consulting and training services in emergency communications. He is the former director of the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center in North Carolina. During his 50-year public safety career, he has managed 9-1-1 centers and served as a volunteer fire officer in three other states. In 2005, Furey received a life membership in the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International for his continued work in emergency communications. Furey was inducted into the Firehouse Hall of Fame in 2017.
