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Lindner Local Schools,
thanks very much. Good luck.

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>> Thank you. Thank you.
>> A legislative hearing at

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the Capitol this week
focused on staffing

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shortages in law
enforcement, looking at

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county jurisdictions in
particular.

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of the emergency?
>> One place staffing

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shortages are being felt
acutely across the state.

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In 911 emergency call
centers among dispatchers.

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What has led to shortages
and what can be done about

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it? We turn to Columbia
County Sheriff Roger

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the Capitol. And Sheriff,
thanks very much for being

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here.
>> You're welcome. Glad to

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be here.
>> So describe the shortage

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of dispatchers in your
county.

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>> Yeah, I think we're
consistent with the rest of

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the 901 PSAP dispatch
centers across the state.

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There's been a struggle to
get qualified dispatchers

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in the door and get them
trained in our county.

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We're we're four short.
We've been 4 to 5 short for

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just over a year and a half,
which puts a, you know, a

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great strain on the other
dedicated dispatchers that

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are currently there.
>> Yeah, indeed. Now, I

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read that the pay is
between about 50 and

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$70,000 a year. Why is it
hard to fill a retain these

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positions? Is it that the
pay cannot make up for the

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stress of the job?
>> Well, I think it's a

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combination of both. You
know, most dispatchers

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around the area are going
to be making around that 25,

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$26 an hour. You know,
which is not a bad paying

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job, but you're working
nights, weekends, holidays.

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It's not Monday through
Friday shift work. These

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are long hours. Very
stressful. You know, if you

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taking that call from that
mom whose young child is

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not breathing or from a car
accident or a domestic, you

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know, or a sexual assault,
there's a lot of stressful

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calls. And these
dispatchers are the ones

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that answer that call to
get the first responders to

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that scene.
>> And and so with a

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shortage, in addition to,
to that, they're working a

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lot of overtime hours.
>> Oh, absolutely. I know

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dispatch centers across the
state that have contracted

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with other dispatch centers.
I know one county where the

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sheriff is actually
dispatching at night

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because they're so short.
Our dispatchers are working

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a lot of overtime. It's
nothing. Nothing for them

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to work 20 extra hours in
addition to their 40 hours

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a week.
>> What does a shortage of

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dispatchers mean for
emergency response in your

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community and others?
>> Yeah, I mean, we've been

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able to backfill it with
our dedicated men and women

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in our dispatch center. But
the fear across the state

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and in our county
especially, is when they

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burn out and they leave and
we get any shorter, we're

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going to struggle with
having someone answer that

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call for service. When
someone calls for that,

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that immediate need of fire,
EMS or law enforcement, you

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know, we need a proper,
timely response. We need a

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trained dispatcher to
gather all the adequate

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information to get the
right first responders

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there. And if they're tired,
if they're calling in sick,

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if we don't have the staff
to to sit in that dispatch

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center, there's going to be
a delay in first responder

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services, which is a public
safety issue.

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you is that as the lead law
enforcement official in

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your county, to be worrying
about emergency response

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times?
>> Oh, it's it's critical.

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This has been our number
one focus in our county for

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about the last year.
There's no question there's

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law enforcement officers
that work the street, our

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jailers and our county
jails. Many county jails

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are not at full staff. But
our dispatch center. I mean,

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they have to be there. They
have to answer that, that

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call for service. They they
just have to we have to

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have someone sitting in
those chairs and there

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cannot be a delay. Seconds
truly make a difference

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when you're calling for
assistance.

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>> What are some of the
solutions being looked at?

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>> Well, our county
specifically, we really did

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a an adjustment of pay. We
did some premium incentives

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for working at night and on
weekends. We have done some

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other financial type of
incentives. So if you're

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here a year, three years,
five years, you get a bonus.

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We have changed the hours.
One unique thing with us is

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we just consolidated the
Wisconsin Dells Police

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Department's dispatch
center, which, you know,

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was about $1 million
project. And we had to

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increase our space up there.
Our dispatch stations, the

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equipment, update them. So
that was a big project, you

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know, because Wisconsin
Dells area is is busy in

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the summertime especially.
But, you know, actually all

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12 months out of the year
now. So we've we've given

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them more help. We've we've
increased, you know, some

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of the the little things up
there, as crazy as it

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sounds, we got them a
treadmill. We started some

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yoga classes here. We do a
lot of stress management

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with helping them cope with
the stress of taking these

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calls. Because our
dispatchers work 12 hours a

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shift, and that's a long
time to be sitting there,

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and they don't get the
opportunity, like so many

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other workers, to get up
and walk around, to move

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around, to leave the
station and go get fresh

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air outside. They have to
stay close to that radio at

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any given second. That
any given second. That