Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Dispatch Staffing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Sumner County dispatch reports 13.9% rise in incidents; requests additional telecommunicators
Summary
The county’s emergency communications center reported a 13.9% year-over-year increase in incidents in the first half of the year and asked the commission to approve five telecommunicators and two CTO positions to address staffing shortfalls.
The director of the county’s dispatch center reported that the emergency communications center processed about 124,000 calls for service in the first six months of the year, a roughly 13.9% increase from the same period in 2024.
“For the first six months of this year, the ECC has processed through that by 124,000 calls for service,” the director said at the meeting. The director said the center supports 22 client agencies and that call volume and outgoing calls have climbed.
The director told commissioners the DCC is currently two positions short after recent departures and asked the commission to approve a personnel request of five telecommunicators and two CTOs to redistribute staffing across larger agencies and EMS and FirePods. “We have asked the 5 telecommunicators and 2 CTOs,” the director said; the positions would put two telecommunicators on larger agencies and three in EMS and the FirePod if approved.
Commissioners asked about the budget implications. The director said the staffing request will be forwarded to the full commission for consideration and emphasized the positions are needed because client agencies’ personnel counts have increased over recent years.
Why it matters: Increasing 911-related workloads can lengthen call processing times and strain public-safety dispatching. The director said double-digit increases in client agencies’ staffing and call volume justify additional telecommunicators.
Next steps: The staffing request will be considered by the full commission; the director said recruitment is under way to fill existing vacancies in the meantime.
