VIRGINIA BEACH
When Melinda Bramley started taking calls in Virginia Beach's police dispatch center in 1969, dispatchers used pens, paper and a two-way, two-channel radio. They fielded about 60 calls for service each day.
The city's population has more than doubled in the 39 years since, and calls for service have soared to more than 1,300 a day.
New technology allows call-takers to trace telephone numbers, handle multiple reports at once and share information with other dispatchers - all at the same time.
Bramley, the department's senior staff member, has witnessed major changes in training. On her first day of work, she said, she was pointed to a phone near a dispatcher and told to start answering.
Today, new hires spend 10 weeks in an academy learning how to deal with hysterical callers, dispense basic medical advice and classify and prioritize reports. Bramley leads that effort.
"It is more difficult now to get into it than it was when I started," she said. "It's more stressful, a more complex operation. We're doing everything we can to select the right people."
Those efforts include a restructuring of the emergency communications office, with expanded salary scales, new job titles, and defined pay raises and promotions that took effect in February. The changes are aimed at rewarding employees and attracting applicants who want to build a career, said communications administrator Doug Onhaizer.
A $150,000 grant awarded to the center Tuesday by the Virginia Wireless E-911 Services Board will be used to identify traits shared by successful dispatchers. The findings will be incorporated into recruiting in an attempt to reduce turnover, which is a problem for dispatch centers nationwide, Bramley said.
About 10 percent of applicants make it through the initial hiring process, and many of those don't stick with it through the first year, Bramley said. That turnover can be fueled by calls related to violence, such as the one Bramley took years ago when a child said she was bandaging the stab wounds on her dead mother's body.
Those high-pressure calls led communications administrators to incorporate a quiet room, where call-takers can decompress after stressful situations, in the $8 million emergency communications center that opened two years ago at the city's municipal center. The 26,000-square-foot building includes an exercise room, full kitchen, lockers and space for the dispatch center to continue growing during the next three decades.
On Thursday, three call-takers graduated from the academy and joined the center's 83-person staff. Seven recruits will start training this month as administrators try to fill the 15 budgeted, vacant positions. Bramley, meanwhile, said she plans to keep training call-takers and dispatchers.
"You're truly helping people," she said. "It's not a job you would get bored with."
Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com
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We forget so easily...
We actually have it pretty good at the dispatch center. I can remember when things were so bad at the police department we were trying to unionize - some people are never happy. We gave a new building, better tehcnology, better pay, better training, etc. We were never the number one priority before but now we seem to get alot of attention.
The few who speak bad are just that, the few...it is easy to criticize but we have it pretty good. I was talking with a dispatcher from another city and they make less money, are in a small building and have to work gobs of overtime. Management hasd given me plenty of opportunity to be successful and speak my mind. Maybe we should stop blamming everyone else and start helping each other. It is a good job at a good city with good pay and with leaders that care - think about that the next time you check out sick and leave me to answer the calls.
Why Stop at a Captain?
Bring Major Waterfield back..he ran it years ago.
It's not the Supervisors, it's the Administration
Don't blame the supervisors for something over which they have no control. The VB911 supervisors are not permitted to supervise. They are told what they can and can't do without being able to use their supervisory judgment to handle situations that arise. The entire problem lies with the center manager who is in essence a puppet whose strings are controlled by his bosses. None of them appears to fully grasp the concept of a 911 center. They all seem to think that by having state of the art computer equipment and buildings, all will be OK. The worst thing that ever happened was taking the Communications division out of the Police Department where it belonged. Now all the two divisions do is fight to see who is going to win out when decisions are made over protocol, equipment, etc. Put the division back under the Police department where it belongs and put a Police Captain at the helm. You'll see vas
I dispatched in Chesapeake
I dispatched in Chesapeake for 6 months. I left because someone committed suicide while on the phone with me He was calling from a cell phone & at that time, cell phones couldn't be traced. While it was rewarding to help people, that incident really got to me. Had I received some sort of counseling after the incident, I would probably still be there. Now that I am older (I was 21 at the time) & better able to deal with life, I would love to dispatch again. I think disptachers deserve the same respect as police officers, EMT's & fire fighters.
dr...
Having them run by experienced public safety personnel would be a great start. Their mission is not software system support or hardware maintenance related. It is a bad fit and needs to be corrected. Maybe under the office of Emergency Management? The E911 administrator could report directly to the city's operations chief along with the chiefs of Police, Fire, and EMS who already do so. Just a thought.
Excellent Dispatchers but poor quality of life..
I worked in the VB 911 center for over 5 years. Everyone of the dispatchers worked really hard is dedicated to their job. The reason for the turnover is a lack of caring about the people actually doing the job by the upper level management. Here are a few things to consider working there; They have mandatory overtime you can't say no or you're disciplined. Leave is granted by seniority and you have to put in for your leave a year in advance. If you are not the #1 or #2 person on the days you want leave then your leave is not guaranteed. If you need leave on short notice, sorry rarely approved. Take too much sick leave well then you have to go to the doctor to get a doctors note every time your take sick leave or you'll be disciplined. I loved the job, enjoyed the people I worked with but the management just had no clue about there employee's quality of life.
Tied Up by Mediocrity
The folks in the radio room do a great job, too bad their supervisors are a bunch of idiots. They were the ones hired using the 'ring' test. Put a brass ring on top of their heads, and if the top sticks through, hire them as administrators.
Hopefully Councilman Woods will stir up the pot down there and get these fantastic dispatchers the kind of managers who are alos leaders: and know what the job really entails.