Police Get Call for 911 Dispatching Help

Saying civilian supervisors in the city’s emergency dispatch center often don’t have enough law enforcement experience, the Ventura Police Department is replacing them with four officers.

The reorganization comes as the ranks of dispatchers who respond to 911 calls have been decimated by long hours, high stress and limited pay, and departments across the country find themselves scrambling for help to address the turnover.

To meet the demand for dispatchers, two Ventura officers were pulled off patrol duty to staff the emergency phones, a move the department says helped improve service and office morale. That, in turn, led to the decision.

The officers “learned the technical skills pretty readily, and they already knew the tactics and criminal and civil law issues,” Police Chief Mike Tracy said.

The department only has to train officers for six weeks, as opposed to six to nine months for a civilian operator, according to a department report.

“The bottom line is, this will improve service to the community,” Lt. Quinn Fenwick said. “We didn’t have serious troubles. We’re always trying to improve services, and we think this will.”

Cpl. Ralph Martinez, a 12-year veteran of the force, has been temporarily supervising in the office since the summer staffing crunch. His job will become official in January.

“It’s stressful,” Martinez said. “There are a million things going on at once. What goes on in here will help make things easier on the street.”

Because of his police training, Martinez said, he can save the force valuable time by working out problems over the phone rather than having to dispatch an officer.

“I can put someone on hold and then talk to the other party on another line,” he said. “That’s something that could take an hour from an officer on the street.”

The move brings three layoffs, but two of those supervisors are expected to take jobs as dispatchers within the department. Costs are expected to remain about the same, officials said.

The dispatch staff will now include three more dispatchers, for a total of 14, on top of the four police supervisors and a new training coordinator.

The City Council approved the reorganization this week with little controversy. Members of the council said that with a market so hungry for dispatchers, the civilian supervisor who was laid off should be able to find a job easily.

The dispatcher shortage is not as acute in Ventura County as in Los Angeles County, where callers to 911 can get a busy signal. To prevent this, local dispatchers sometimes work a combined four to 10 extra hours a day, for as much as 80 hours of overtime a month, officials said.

Emergency dispatchers must be able to do hundreds of tasks--from answering a phone to operating a computer to telling a child how to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The number of 911 calls is increasing 10% a year, largely because of the growth in the number of cell phones.

The Ventura Police Department receives more than 500 calls a day, according to a recent report. Two to four dispatchers are on duty at a time.

That can be a lot to handle, dispatchers say.

“When people call in, they don’t call in to say, ‘I’m having a wonderful day,’ ” dispatcher Heather Cressall said. “Handling stress is really important. . . . These changes are to help prevent burnout, to stop it before it starts.”