New Public Safety Center aims to combat 911 dispatcher shortage

TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) - The need for 911 dispatchers persists. Staffing shortages have long been an issue, but a new center is hoping to change that.

Friday, the City of Tucson opened a new Public Safety Communications Center for 911 dispatchers. The goal is to reduce wait times and call transfers.

Along with the new space, they’re also working on more robust training and creating a better culture for the people you depend on when you dial 911.

″Our staffing is short,” said Sharon McDonough, Director of the Public Safety Communications Department. “Our training was one of the main reasons that we were told as we surveyed our employees that people were leaving, and our culture was the other.”

Answering 911 calls can be a brutal job. These people are the first link in the chain and they’re around 24/7, 365 days out of the year. This center receives around one million 911 calls from the Tucson area and they serve 12 regional partners.

With the new center, the director and administrator are focusing on how to be better for employees and for those who depend on them.

“We have a sensory room that allows people to go decompress after a call, equipped with a weighted blanket, nice music, some mood lighting, some scents, and even sour candy because sour candy kind of resets your brain after a traumatic event,” McDonough explained.

They’ve also added a wellness center, space for behavioral health providers, and the old dispatch floor will be the new training area. The new center has been in the works for about five years and cost nearly $8 million.

“After the years of work being put into this project, we have a state of the art, highly efficient system that will deliver the services our residents deserve,” Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said.

With the center and training, they’ve already seen several former dispatchers want to come back to work. But they’re still hiring for around 45 openings.

“We are looking to hire and continue to hire until we can reach 100% capacity to provide that service to the community,” said administrator, Rick Pegues. “The more people we have the faster the phones get answered.”

Not having a full staff has had a tremendous impact on the employees who are there, but their staffing levels are higher now than they have been for a while.

“We had to do things like restrict vacations. We had to put in a lot of very, very strict measures that impacted their morale. I can’t let you take a day of vacation if I don’t have someone to replace you because we can’t turn those phones off,” Pegues said.

This is just the beginning. There are still new additions on the way. Starting in March, they’re hoping to begin phase one of answering 311 for non-emergency calls.

If you’re interested in learning more about becoming a dispatcher, you can find more details here.

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