Deseret News (Salt Lake City): Dispatchers overextended

PROVO -- Dispatchers for the Utah County Sheriff's Office know they're not alone in their demanding work schedules. Dispatchers in Utah Valley and beyond work long, stressful shifts in cities where money is tight.

But when officials in the sheriff's office learned that their dispatchers recently started working mandatory overtime shifts -- four, 12-hour shifts each week -- they decided to call public attention to a long-standing problem.

"We have to put a value on what (dispatchers) do," said Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Harris. "I think, in the past, we've just kind of dismissed dispatchers, but if we all take a real, hard look at it, communication is the essence of most of what is successful in law enforcement. Without good communication, we're destined to fail."

The sheriff's office says it has a manpower crisis in the county dispatch center, which dispatch supervisor Doris Mohler says is partly due to an exploding population.

"For the amount of growth that has happened in the population, the number of dispatchers has not increased in a proportionate manner," Mohler said.

According to the 2000 Census, Utah County's population grew from 263,590 in 1990 to 368,536 in 2000, a 28 percent increase. But Mohler, who has worked in the dispatch center for 18 years, says the staff has increased by just two since 1990.

"Eighteen years ago, the normal staffing was three or four people, depending on the time of day," she said. "Now we've gone up just a couple of people -- we're working here today with five -- but in that amount of time, there's been so much growth that's occurred. Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs weren't even there. Salem, Payson and Lehi, it seems like they've almost doubled in size."

Provo Dispatch Center Supervisor Dana Ferre said her center is facing an even bigger staffing crisis.

"We're actually worse off than county (sheriff dispatchers)," she said. "We have such a high workload, but the city hasn't given us any new dispatchers since the early '90s."

Ferre said all dispatch centers struggle to attract and keep staff.

"I don't think there's a dispatch center that you could call that wouldn't say the same thing," she said. "It goes with the territory; that's just how dispatching is -- it's a stressful job. It's just something that we live with on a daily basis. It gets worse at times. Right now it's really bad. But we're always fighting it."

Both Ferre and Mohler cited the stressful working conditions as the main source of staffing problems.

"When you get in the position, a lot of times people will say, after taking calls, 'I'm just not cut out for this.' " Mohler said. "Because a lot of times they'll take the stress home with them, and not be able to complete it. A lot of times they become afraid to even answer the 911, because you don't know what's going to be on the other end until you pick it up."

Ferre said she can still remember stressful calls she took over a decade ago.

"It's been 15 years, and I still remember a little girl crying when her father was beating her mom up," she said. "You remember those things. You remember the dad that's sobbing because his son just shot himself. Those are hard to live with, and that long-term stress gets you. Dispatchers get unhealthy and burned-out and they quit."

Mohler said the Utah County Dispatch Center is operating with one less staff member than the minimum, which has forced mandatory overtime shifts for dispatchers.

"Over the last few recruitment periods, we've had less people applying, or less people that are qualified to fill the positions. We've actually been unable to fill additional positions, so it's put us down several at a time," she said. "The salary is higher in other dispatch centers, or private sector jobs."

Ferre said she thinks if dispatchers are pushed to work more and more, mistakes that have occurred in the past will become more frequent.

"If they ever want to fix it, and not have mistakes like we've had, and problems with newer people, then you've got to legitimize it, and you've got to turn it into something people think they could do for 20 years," she said. "But until they do something like that, they're going to continue to have the kind of problems they're having."

Entry-level wages for a Utah County dispatcher is $11.44 an hour. After seven years, they top out at $13.77 per hour. In Provo, dispatchers can earn up to $17 to $20 an hour if they are veteran dispatchers.

Harris said he thinks there are multiple entities that can improve the current staffing situation with better benefits and pay.

Ferre said she thinks cities can't afford to save money with lower-paying dispatch positions.

"One of the corners they cut is dispatch, but the problem with doing that is you don't juggle emergencies," she said. "You can't play Russian roulette with this. You don't hope that nothing's going to happen because we're down to two people. When it comes to 911, people expect us to be there, no matter when it is."

Harris said that while some steps have been taken, more priority needs to be placed on dispatch funding. "(The Utah County Commission) allowed for the hiring of two additional people a few years ago, which was great," he said. "But we still have the same retention problem as in the past I don't believe that the pay is commensurate for the type of work that these folks are involved in."

Harris said he believes that dispatcher benefits should be more in line with other public-safety officials.

"They give firefighters and police the chance to retire after 20 years," he said. "I'll tell you something, you can take half of the people that are currently working public safety, and I don't think they could make it through dispatch."

E-mail: mdecker@desnews.com