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Hartford emergency communications outlines staffing gains, RapidSOS upgrade and mobile backup plans
Summary
The Department of Emergency Services and Telecommunications reported staff increases, a plan for a 16-person trainee class starting May 5, improved 911 answer rates, a planned RapidSOS upgrade and steps to enable mobile/backup dispatching after an in-center fire-suppression activation forced an evacuation during the hearing.
Director Jeffrey Covello of the City of Hartford Department of Emergency Services and Telecommunications (ES&T) told the council committee the department has increased staffing and is pursuing technology and redundancy improvements to improve 911 performance and resilience.
Covello said the department has 45 authorized dispatcher positions; of those, 24 dispatchers are fully trained, two additional fully trained call takers and three current trainees are on staff, and the department has extended 16 job offers to build a new class of trainees with a tentative start date of May 5. He said that, depending on training progress, the new trainees could be working on the floor within six months to a year.
Why this matters: ES&T answers emergency calls for police, fire and EMS; staffing levels, training capacity and technology investments affect how quickly callers reach an operator and how well the city…
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