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Hartford emergency services and technology reports dispatch staffing gaps, CAD-to-CAD work with AMR and Oct. 18 radio cutover on schedule
Summary
Shante Washington, Q&A coordinator for Emergency Services and Technology, told the Quality of Life and Public Safety Committee on Sept. 11 that dispatch has 14 vacancies with a target Oct. 6 training start, CAD-to-CAD interoperability with AMR is underway at no cost to the city, and a radio infrastructure cutover is anticipated Oct. 18.
Shante Washington, Q&A coordinator for Hartford’s Emergency Services and Technology (ES&T), updated the City Council Quality of Life and Public Safety Committee on Sept. 11 about staffing, training and technology projects, including a radio infrastructure cutover scheduled for Oct. 18 and ongoing CAD-to-CAD work with AMR.
Washington said ES&T has eight authorized supervisors in public-safety communications and recently promoted Teresa Pallega to supervisor. She reported a recent hire — Charlene Anderson, an 18-plus-year veteran dispatcher from Plainfield — and said interviews for a deputy director are complete and a selection is underway.
On dispatch staffing, Washington said the center has 45 authorized dispatcher positions. Her slide reported 20 fully trained dispatchers, four call takers, seven trainees, and two per diem employees, leaving 14 vacancies. She said the department expects to start a dispatcher training class with a target date of Oct. 6 and that lateral and per diem staffing are part of the near-term plan.
Washington described upcoming training opportunities and community engagement: the Denise Amber Lee Foundation training is slated for Jan. 15 and a homicide-class program is planned for Nov. 12–13; ES&T has participated in National Night Out and planned career-fair and parade engagement.
On technology, Washington said CAD-to-CAD interoperability with AMR is "still underway" and described AMR’s contribution to the city’s hub at no cost. She said Aetna leadership had committed to follow in the future. Washington said the radio infrastructure project remained on schedule and staff training was in progress, with an anticipated cutover date of Oct. 18.
She reviewed incident and call-volume dashboards and noted a system glitch that affected the August figures; Washington said staff were working to correct the August data. She also described ES&T collaborations with HEART team, CRT and Wheeler Clinic to redirect some quality-of-life calls to appropriate behavioral-health and social-service resources.
Council members asked no substantive follow-ups during the presentation; Councilman Clark thanked Washington and asked the committee to pass regards to Director Covello, who was not present. Washington said morale was stable, cited one citizen complaint under investigation and noted two resignations and one retirement earlier in the year.
