The year 2020 long will be remembered for being a turbulent year. No other in recent history spawned so many challenges for the fire service, and dispatch was far from immune. As field personnel coped with how to best respond during an epidemic, dispatchers dealt with the new reality of infection control in the communications center. The typical PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) is rife with the potential to spread germs: a confined space, which often has questionable ventilation, where telecommunicators literally sit elbow to elbow for 12 or more hours at a time, communally sharing devices, such as keyboards and chairs, and repeatedly touching common surfaces, including console surfaces, monitors, telephones and controls. In some smaller centers, headsets even might be passed from person to person during shift change. Even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently indicates airborne droplets as the primary means of the spread of the coronavirus, the focus on general sanitation remains sharply increased industrywide.
Although some segments downplayed the threat of COVID-19, the reality hit home in Broward County, FL, Detroit, Chicago, New York City and other communities where dispatchers succumbed to the disease. Nor were the effects limited to big cities. A Putnam County, NY, dispatcher died, and infections also were reported around the country in centers in San Francisco, Tucson, AZ, Niagara County, NY, Washtenaw County, MI, and Alice, TX, among others.
How to protect PSAP
The spring and summer saw the release of advice, guidelines and reference sources from the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, the National Emergency Number Association and the CDC on how to protect the PSAP. Individual manufacturers issued bulletins on best practices for sanitizing their equipment. Although not universally enacted, many agencies instituted practices that involved temperature checks, wearing masks, eliminating visitors, using every other console, installing plexiglass barriers, restricting public contact and issuing personal keyboards. Common areas were regulated or closed outright. Backup centers were brought online to further socially distance, and administrative employees were told to work at home.
Beginning in March, Alexandria, VA, took the work-from-home mandate to another level when it assigned personnel to field 9-1-1 and 3-1-1 calls remotely. Using technology that was provided through FirstNet, telecommunicators could operate safely from their own residence, without the need of coming into contact with co-workers. This concept was discussed in the June 2020 issue’s edition of Fire Dispatch.
Pointing out how remote call-taking was a new and never-used process to handle emergency and nonemergency calls, Jeff Wobbleton, who is the assistant director of IT and administration for the Alexandria Department of Emergency Communication, explains that Alexandria’s effort was collaborative with the PSAP community. “I want to call out Arlington County for their assistance in the development.”
Wobbleton explains that several lessons were learned along the way. Ultimately, those led to the realization that connectivity is the key to success.
“The best advice is to test, test and retest the process,” Wobbleton adds. “We are still learning more every day.”
Unfortunately, the weakest link in our current Continuity of Operations planning is people. Although great attention and regulation have been given to developing fail-safe systems and redundant circuits and electrical power, we have been slow to acknowledge that none of these provides any benefit without trained telecommunicators. Already plagued by chronic shortages, departments found themselves addressing how to best maintain service with an even further depleted workforce.
Another area of change involved our front-facing policies. While some communities experienced an increase in calls that were related to COVID-19, others indicated a lessened workload as a result of closed businesses and schools and limited travel. In June, Reuters reported a sharp decline in automobile accidents yet a significant increase in fatalities per miles travelled, adding one more confusing statistic. Pre-arrival instructions often were modified to include virus-specific questions, and conflicts sometimes arose between public safety and health departments over access to the identities of known infected individuals. Dispatch routines were changed to reduce exposure of suppression personnel. The advent of public social distancing and mask usage requirements added a burden to 9-1-1, as citizens called 9-1-1 to report violations.
Turmoil in the streets
Then came civil unrest. Disparaging and often menacing phone calls increased. Although typically directed toward law enforcement, no service was immune. Aurora, CO, reported a doubling of 9-1-1 calls that was fueled by angry people, some with an intent to disrupt. One such person dialed 50 times in a row, obviously impeding the ability to deal with real emergencies. Another advised, “You dispatch for serial killers. Good luck telling the mob that comes to your home, ‘I’m just a dispatcher.’” An Ohio man was arrested for threatening to shoot a telecommunicator in the head when she left work. Unfortunately, these aren’t isolated incidents. Many communities warned telecommunicators to remove public safety decals from their vehicles and to refrain from wearing uniforms in public lest they become potential targets.
Operationally, alterations to assignments were made in response to community disorder. Police protection often was dispatched coincidentally with fire apparatus; in some cases, responses were curtailed until safety could be assured. Routines that were modified to meet the pandemic often had to be modified again to deal with the new danger. As the summer turned to fall, communications centers again were reminded of the incredible workloads that were generated by natural phenomena when hurricanes hit the South and wildfires ravaged the West. As a precaution, the Clackamas County, OR, 9-1-1 center relocated because of fire danger.
Water rescues, failing infrastructure, massive evacuations, extended mutual aid and calls that far exceeded available resources were just the tip of the iceberg, as telecommunicators scrambled to keep pace.
As if the workload caused by historic and unprecedented blazes was insufficient, social media added to the task. Douglas County, OR, 9-1-1 was overrun with calls that sought to verify that members of political protest movement Antifa were arrested for arson. The Sheriff’s Office responded to the Facebook rumor with a post of its own, advising residents to “Do your part. STOP. SPREADING. RUMORS!”
As we move ever closer to 2021, we only can imagine what lies in store. What will efforts to defund police mean for dispatch centers that fall under this umbrella? Will it simply mean that communications is transferred to independent management, or will across-the-board cuts mean that anything law enforcement-related will be slashed, resulting in the reduction of already marginal staffing to an even more dangerous level? Will disease and disorder shape the new year, as it has the past, and what new techniques will emerge to deal with “the new normal?” Will 2021 bring more challenges than 2020, and how will we cope?
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.
