getResQ911 LLC
After 40 plus years collectively in and around the 911 PSAP, we at getResQ911 have seen firsthand the challenges that the understaffing crisis has created. Numerous reports and surveys by 911 vendors and associations and countless conversations with PSAP Directors all point to the results of understaffing. Excessive overtime, oppressive scheduling, attrition, heightened mental health and PTSD are all significant challenges that PSAP Directors and Management have to try to work around to create work environments that everyone wants. PSAP management's hands are often tied as they try to offer the best services to their communities and the hero’s under the headset remain the victims of low salaries and ever increasing hours and stress.
The industry is looking to the government to help classify the telecommunicators as professionals and there has been great progress on this front. Unfortunately it’s limited to title only at this point, not salary. The vendor community is leveraging AI and other technologies to offload non-emergency calls, do automatic language translations and even remote answering to help manage mounds of data to address the ever increasing call volumes and negative press reports. I certainly believe that technology will one day help significantly in addressing many of the needs, but there are immediate challenges like funding, IT expertise and bandwidth for more technology that many PSAPs are struggling with.
In the meantime, growing frustration and more attrition leads to increasing crises. The realities of inadequate pay, too many hours, stress and vacancies leaves many Agency Directors and Telecommunicators facing a real-life crisis. And also add to this the realities of Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z and now Gen Alpha’s demanding better work/life balance. Which isn’t a bad thing, if you think about it. Why should they work 60 to 70 hours, miss most of their family and friends, and get paid the non-professional hours that most are paid.
This begs the question - if you had significantly less vacancies in the PSAP, how would it affect the top issues cited in these reports? Would it allow PSAP Directors to mandate far less overtime, thereby creating more consistent scheduling, less stress and mental health challenges, driving much less attrition and ultimately create the culture that both management and telecommunicators are demanding?
Filling every seat would allow Agency Directors to have the bandwidth to begin to address the Government's challenge of recognizing the importance of a well operated 911 Dispatch Center and the professionalism of the telecommunicator. As this becomes reality, paying the telecommunicator a professional salary may yet come to pass long before we are all replaced by AI driven robots and automated call taking and dispatching.
