Quote Originally Posted by Mike41793 View Post
1 dispatcher for 25,000 people? Holy hell i would not want that job. How do you take on multiple calls at once, do you like put people on hold lol?
There are times when we have to place people on hold. If we don't answer 911 within 5 rings it gets transferred to the city next to us, then they call us all pissy wondering why we didn't answer lol. If it's an extreme emergency I'll let it transfer over, but it's basically prioritizing things. I have to use my better judgement and decide what's a priority. Multitasking is key, obviously lol. We are pressing the town HARD now to get 2 dispatchers on 24/7, we just hired two part timers, but you know budgets are everything. The school system gets all the money we need to hire and staff this place. We're understaffed by about 4 full time dispatchers. I work anywhere between 8-40 hours of OVERTIME per week lol on top of my normal 40 hours...