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Red River Regional Dispatch Center reports extraordinary call volumes during recent incidents, council is urged to recognize dispatch workload
Summary
A council member described high call volumes at the Red River Regional Dispatch Center during June incidents, noting a spike that at times doubled the center—s typical busiest-hour workload and praising dispatch staff for their response.
Council member Ryan Nelson reported on operations at the Red River Regional Dispatch Center and highlighted unusually high call volumes during a June 20 multi-incident day.
Nelson said the dispatch center, which serves Fargo, West Fargo, Moorhead and Cass and Clay counties, experienced overlapping incidents on June 20 that pushed call volume far above normal capacity. He recounted an 11:46 a.m. report of an individual firing from a vehicle in Moorhead followed by multiple simultaneous calls about thrown objects and vehicle incidents in Fargo. Those and other calls triggered the center—s overflow procedures and required supervisors to step in.
Nelson provided hour-by-hour totals for that day as described by the dispatch executive director: in the 11 a.m. hour the center processed 49 911 calls and 60 administrative calls (total 100); in the 11 p.m. hour it processed 49 911 calls and 79 administrative calls (total 119); in the 12 a.m. hour it processed 57 911 calls and 122 administrative calls (total 179). He said the center—s busiest typical hour is about 25 911 calls and 60 administrative calls (about 85 total), so the reported volumes roughly doubled peak loads.
Nelson praised the dispatchers and supervisors for responding professionally and urged the public to understand potential delays for lower-priority calls when dispatchers are managing multiple simultaneous high-priority incidents.
No vote or formal action was taken; the report was informational.
