Sacramento Police Department struggling with dispatcher shortage
SACRAMENTO — More people in Sacramento are experiencing delays when they call 911 for help, and CBS13 has found that the Sacramento Police Department is currently not meeting state standards.
Dispatchers are the first point of contact for people when there's an emergency.
"You're helping people when they're probably having a super bad day," said Latonya McDaniel, a Sacramento police 911 communications manager.
Dispatchers pick up the phone not knowing what kind of crisis may be on the other end.
"It could be a high-priority call — a shooting, stabbing, domestic violence, or missing child," said Miguel Contreras Andrad, a police dispatcher.
"We're the ones who help create a little bit of calm," McDaniel said.
But right now, the Sacramento Police Department is in desperate need of hiring more dispatchers.
"We're getting more calls for service every day than what the staff members that we have on the floor now can handle," Andrad said.
There is funding for 80 emergency dispatcher positions, but only a fraction are filled.
"We currently have roughly 56," McDaniel said.
So how is the staffing shortage impacting emergency call answer times? California standards require 90% of all 911 calls to be answered within 15 seconds, but only 88% of calls going into the Sacramento Police Department meet that requirement.
"We only have seven or eight people staffing the phone lines, but you have 30 people or more making phone calls," McDaniel said.
"Sometimes, when we don't have enough people working, it delays the response time of our officers," Andrad said.
Current dispatchers are forced to work overtime, and sworn officers are even sometimes brought in to help answer the phones.
So the department is taking new steps to hire more people by holding an open house and encouraging more community members to apply.
"No two days are the same," McDaniel said.
Sacramento police run a seven-week academy and provide all the training for what can be a career that really helps the public.
"I'm hoping to find some good people that are willing to join us," McDaniel said.
The salary for recruits starts at $38,000 a year and experienced dispatchers can make more than $90,000. The current police chief, Kathy Lester, first started as a dispatcher.